New Student CenterThe new Student Center offered a warm welcome with its bright lights and spacious lobbies last week as students returned to campus for classes.
With food venues, study areas and a game room — to be complete in a few weeks — the only complaints are getting lost and long lines, which show the positive popularity of the building.
“From all that I have heard when talking to students, they are proud of the new Student Center,” said Johnny Green, Dean of Students. “It has met their expectations in the general sense.”
The center provides a place to socialize, Green said, study and eat in between classes with the new convenient location.
Students are able to take advantage of a new ballroom, which has the largest banquet seating capacity in Lee County, Green said.
The new layout the Student Center presents includes separate food venues, opposed to Foy Student Union’s cafeteria set-up.
Although most students agree the food lines are long and crowded, they have mixed feelings about the separation.
Joshua Foy, a senior double majoring in finance and entrepreneurship and family business, said he believes it is harder to choose a place to eat, or choose the shortest line, because he can’t see all his options.
Dean Green explained he wanted “students to know that opening times, closing times and even menu items are still somewhat in the transitional process and could change.”
“Long lines are a reflection of training for new employees, but we believe the delays will be mitigated once the servers become comfortable with the various routines,” Green said.
Donna McGinty, administrative assistant for the media system, said some students are “confused and can’t find a department, but then again, that’s just getting used to a new building.”
McGinty, who worked previously at Foy Student Union, said “there is a much larger number of students coming to this building than I ever saw at Foy.”
Foy said he barely used Foy Student Union, but has been to the new Student Center three to four days last week.
Whitney Baker, a senior in finance, said she used Foy Student Union maybe once a week the past few years, but has been to the new Student Center three times last week.
“I’ll continue using (the Student Center) throughout the year because I have a break in between classes,” Baker said.
Although some completion needs to be finished, like seating, the game room and the bookstore, it should all wrap up soon.
The bookstore will not be completed until December or January, but the game room should be complete in the next few weeks, and the seating was taken care of last weekend.
