HSC board to decide on renovation, hours

By Dana Netzel

Improving the student activity center in the Holmes Student Center basement and extending the Pow Wow hours until 2 a.m. are decisions the Holmes Student Center Board of Directors will soon face.

Lack of study space in Founders Memorial Library is one contributing reason to the student activity center’s possible renovation. “Students seem to need more study space on campus and our limit is the number of seats,” University Libraries Associate Professor Beth Titus said.

Opening up the student activity center will make better study use of the student center, especially during finals, Student Association Senate Speaker John Fallon said.

Renovations might include replacing six of the nine cubicles with tables to provide more efficient use of space, said Judd Baker, student center director. The area is quiet, well lit and has a no smoking section, he said.

Leaving the west area of the Pow Wow open until 2 a.m. will allow students to “sit in comfort while waiting” for buses, Baker said. The area would be secured from the rest of the building, but another exit will have to be constructed, he said.

The ideas, initiated by Fallon, will become proposals when they are brought to the student center’s board of directors, most likely before the end of the semester.

The student center board of directors are “an acting tool to make any policies in the student center,” board member and SA President Huda Scheidelman said. The board consists of five students, five administrators and Baker.

The new board is a “victory for the students,” because students are allowed in the student center’s decision making process, said Scheidelman. In the past, decisions regarding the student center were made primarily by the director.