If you desperately want to see a foosball room in Schapiro this year, you’ll soon be able to weigh in.
Students who have waited to voice their opinions on the fates of much coveted open space in Broadway and Schapiro can expect to find an outlet for their views by the end of November.
Student leaders plan to survey the student population in the next couple of weeks, said Scott St. Marie, CC’10 and chair of Activities Board at Columbia.
The Columbia College and Engineering Student Councils, ABC, Student Governing Board, Inter Fraternity Council, Residential Life and Club Sports have been working to release a student body survey “to gauge the current demand for types of space on campus,” explained Whitney Green, SEAS ’10 and ESC President. The survey itself is complete and awaits final administrative approval.
The space in question has been made available due to the centralization of student affairs offices, which moved to the renovated Lerner 6 offices this semester. Lerner 6 now houses the
Student Affairs, Judicial Affairs, and Financial Aid offices. Lerner 4 will be redone for the Center for Student Advising offices by the end of next summer.
Now, the former advising offices in Schapiro, Broadway, Carman, and Furnald are prime for reinvention. “Furnald will become space for more beds, and Carman will lend itself to other services,” Green explained.
This leaves the Broadway and Schapiro spaces open for student use—though for what use is still up in the air.
Possibilities vary, and the councils and governing boards are ready to release a survey to determine students’ preferences for the future of the newly open locations.
According to Green, the survey is looking to see how often current spaces are being used, as well as what students hope to get out of the rooms. This means the offices could become meeting spaces, lounge areas or recreation rooms, among other possibilities.
After tallying student opinions from the survey, student leaders plan to take those suggestions to the administration. The next step will be to finally transform those spaces to fit with student needs—though there is no clear timeline on the eventual space conversion.
But Green stressed that possibilities for the spaces are not exactly endless.
“Expectations should be managed because the rooms are only but so big,” she noted. “Everyone is doing their best to ensure that these opening spaces will help to relieve a bit of space crunch.”
As St. Marie has said this semester, the problem with space on campus often boils down to the lack of specialized space for groups. Rooms with hardwood floors and pianos will always be coveted by theater and dance groups, though Columbia often lacks the proper area and resources to develop these spaces. So while some students may finally see these as the kinds of areas they have needed for years, other groups might find that the new spots will do little to relieve their own campus space squeeze.
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