Student organization members who used to work in Stamp Student Union’s Student Involvement Suite are carrying on elsewhere as the suite undergoes a complete renovation, said Stephen Gnadt, Stamp’s associate director.
The 12,000-square-foot space, which houses the Student Organization Resource Center, Student Entertainment Events and Student Government Association offices, as well as offices for 40 to 50 other student groups, is being completely redone to include more meeting rooms that groups can reserve. This will give students more open spaces to plan and meet, Gnadt said. These rooms will also be equipped with high-tech equipment such as smart boards.
A resource room with poster-printing capabilities will also be added. In order to allow for this open space, the individually allocated student group offices will no longer exist. Instead, Gnadt said, he hopes these groups will use the new rooms as alternative office space for meetings. However, the SEE and SGA offices will still be located in the suite.
“When Stamp was renovated about 15 years ago, we put all the student offices located in Stamp in one central location, the Student Involvement Suite,” Gnadt said. “That was when there were about 300 registered organizations, but now there are about 900 registered student organizations, and we wanted to create a space that would better meet the needs of all of the organizations on campus.”
Most of student groups that were located in the Student Involvement Suite used their office space for storage, Gnadt said. Thus, the renovation will also include additional storage units, which will accommodate more than 300 student organizations.
During the $3 million renovation funded primarily through Stamp, the SEE and SGA offices are temporarily located in the Activities Room on the basement level of Stamp, Gnadt said. The organizations’ staff members who were located in the Student Involvement Suite were also relocated to different office spaces throughout the building.
“We went through several different reviews with student leaders and the Stamp Advisory Board in terms of reviewing plans and getting their input about the Student Involvement Suite,” Gnadt said. “We all agreed that something had to be done to create more space for student groups, which is finally happening after a three-year process.”
The project is on schedule, Gnadt said. The demolition, which began on Dec. 22, is complete, and construction is underway and should be finished by July 1, said Bill Olen, executive director of design and construction. The suite will be ready by the fall semester.
This renovation comes after several other phase renovations in recent years, Olen said. The Graduate Student Lounge was renovated about a year ago, and the Department of Fraternity and Sorority Life office was renovated in the past few years, he said.
The next project in Stamp will focus on the north entrance near the baseball stadium, Gnadt said. The renovations will address the deteriorating overhang near the entrance and add a second set of doors to improve insulation.
