If it”s used like a student union, paid for like a student union and run like a student union, it is probably a student union.
That”s the opinion of ASUI Sen. Brianna Larsen, co-sponsor of a resolution that ASUI Senate passed last month to change the name of the Idaho Commons Building to the Idaho Commons and Union Building.
Larsen said the name change was an appropriate response to functional changes that have occurred over time since the building of the commons in 2004.
“The commons already functions as a student space,” Larsen said. “All that”s missing is a lounge and a name.”
Additionally, Larsen said student fees pay for more than half the cost to run the building and payed for more than half the cost to build it. She said a name change helps to recognize that reality.
Larsen said changes in function have been gradual, but the change did not become necessary until the old Student Union Building was renamed the Bruce Pitman Center last year.
“We are one of the only schools without a designated student union building,” she said. “And that is bad.”
ASUI Sen. Katelyn Bartles said the university already has recruitment issues when students compare UI”s commons building to Washington State University”s larger and more fleshed out Compton Union Building. She said this becomes worse for students without the opportunity to visit and find that UI appears to have no designated student union building.
“I”m a senior, and I have never considered the Pitman Center a SUB,” she said.
Bartles, who was chair of the Idaho Commons board last year, said the name change may also affect conversations about use of space in the commons.
Bartles said as the SUB has become less of a student space, and the need for student space in the commons has grown.
The bowling alley was replaced with computers, making it more practical than recreational, but as more students began owning their own computers, the building become even quieter.
Bartles said she hopes the name change will make it clear that the commons is for students and will reinforce former interim Provost and Executive Vice President Katherine Aiken”s promise that the space to be left by the College of Education will be a student space.
In her position last year, Bartles said ASUI collected feedback through living groups, a tabling event and an online survey on what students would most like to see space allocated for.
“Feedback was very mixed,” she said. “Some wanted a quiet area like the Wellspring room and others wanted something more cafe style.”
She said what students overwhelmingly wanted was more printers. Many instructors still demand hard copies, and easy and reliable printer access is a bridge between how students and their instructors work.
Nishant Mohan can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NishantRMohan