The Brown & White

Students and administrators gathered on Thursday to discuss the possibility of a consolidated student center.

A group of students formed a coalition two months ago with the goal of moving the administration to act on the creation of a main student center, which has been being talked about for years.

"I think people see Lehigh as a generally apathetic place, but that's not the case; it's just not organized," Dan Newcombe, '08, said.

The coalition emphasized the student center is needed to provide a common place where all different students can be brought together to meet one another and work cooperatively.

"There are so many things [students groups and Greek organizations] can do together," President of the Global Union Cameron Copeland, '08, said.

Will Brehm, '08, said the center would allow groups on campus to be connected with each other and Lehigh as a whole.

"A student center can help students say 'yes I'm part of Lehigh; I'm part of all these other groups too, but I'm also part of Lehigh'," Brehm said.

Places such as the University Center, Ulrich Student Center and Lamberton Hall are meant to serve as a village of student centers. The problem is, having several student centers only contributes to an already segregated campus, according to students at the meeting.

The proposed student center would be to bring daily activities such as eating, checking mail and hanging out to one place. It would also give graduate students and commuters a place to go during the day.

Students said the space should include: eating locations, lounge spaces, study areas, a convenience store, student photo exhibits, internet access, a movie theatre, a lecture hall, a multimedia room, copy machines and even a student bar.

"With a student center you have a space, you feel like you own part of the university," Copeland said.

Group and club offices and conference rooms are also key aspects of the prospective student center. Student services such as the career services office and the study abroad office would also be available in this one location.

As of Thursday afternoon, over 10 percent of the Lehigh population, including faculty and graduate students, had already signed the groups' petition for the construction of a student center. The petition had only been circulated for two days at the time of the meeting.

"I am absolutely one hundred percent in support of this," Assistant dean of students Chris Mulvihill said. "We have been talking about this for years."

Mulvihill said as an administrator he was drawn to the student focus of the center.

"As an administrator, that's the thing that excites me the most, that we can turn over day to day activities to the students, and that's attractive to me from a philosophical perspective," Mulvihill said.

Copeland said it is particularly important the new student center offer inexpensive and professional rooms for clubs to use for events.

Copeland said it is difficult for the Global Union to sponsor large events because they must be held in either Baker Hall or Grace Hall, which are very expensive to use.

When the Global Union sponsors international speakers, there is no lecture hall that would show the Lehigh University emblem in the background if a speaker was filmed, Copeland said. A student center could include one.

"It's not so much centralizing the activity but centralizing the place where people find out about the activity," Newcombe said.

The center could serve as a place students go to pass the time, Mulvhill said.

"I think it would likely change the traffic flow quite considerably," he said. "It would probably have a pretty broad impact on the campus community, but it would take a lot of time too."

The discussion led to the idea that the closest thing Lehigh has to a student center is Linderman Library.

"People tell me that they go to Ulrich to study and Linderman to hang out," Brehm said.

With its open architecture, many sitting areas and café, Linderman works as a hub of social interaction, according to students.

A student center would allow for the library to function as it was meant to function, as a quiet study area, according to students at the meeting.

As for the location of the new student center, the UC was suggested, possibly with a renovation on the hillside to the right of the back entrance. Another suggestion was to have an outside portion of the student center, such as a patio that could even be covered on a rainy day.

One burden Lehigh would have to overcome in order to renovate the UC is the load-bearing walls, administrators said.

However, not all students are in favor of a new student center.

"It seems like a glorious waster of money to me because we have three [student centers] and if we just utilize them correctly is would be okay," Greg James, '11, said.

Discussion about the student center will continue on April 22 in the Multicultural Center.