With the demolition of Jacobus and the construction of Alexander House still unfinished, cultural organizations don’t have an easily accessible place to keep their items. As a result of inconvenient access times and other issues, many organizations have resorted to keeping their items in personal storage as opposed to using the space available in Humphreys.
At the Ethnic Student Council (ESC) general body meeting last week, representatives of cultural organizations discussed the difficulties with planning and holding events as a result of a lack of storage. Many of the organizations that comprise the ESC need to have their E-board members carry necessary items from their apartments. One member from the Filipino Association of Stevens Tech (FAST) has to sleep next to a lion’s head each night and bring it to campus when they have events.
The school has provided storage space for these organizations in Humphreys, but according to George Ibuna, the President of FAST, this storage space is difficult to use since access is only possible after coordination with the Office of Student Life and during business hours. This means that the only time these items can be accessed is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays — outside of the times when many club events and meetings occur.
“While it’s a pain to coordinate between E-Board members and carry items to/from apartments located all across Hoboken, we’d rather be annoyed with situations we can control. Leaving our inventory in Humphreys risks not being able to access it for evening events (9-11PM) and having no one with access to contact about it, while back in Jacobus we could access the closet without needing to request approval each time.”
The President of ESC, Jon Pendon, has to keep speakers, food trays, and more in his car. Whenever an ESC-based organization wants to hold an event, he has to stay on campus and wait for their event to finish so that he can hold onto the trays and items after it’s over.
“The Jacobus move affected me greatly. At the time of the purge, we had no idea where things would be going, other than ‘an off-campus site.’ So, I put all the essential items that I knew would be needed in the next semester at my house, and any random items in the so-called ‘long-term storage.’ We did not have enough information at the time, so we informed as many people to do the same… [then] we found out that Humphreys would be the new closet and it would only be accessible between OSL hours. ESC and the other 11 organizations all had to deal with it because alternatives were overlooked.”
In general, student opinion is sympathetic to the situation. “We had to put all of our stuff in boxes and label them. However, after going to Humphreys basement after moving from Jacobus, I quickly realized we were missing our stuff. A whole box is missing and I still have no idea where it is,” says Ameya Ivaturvi, President of the Indian Undergraduate Association. “Say what you will about Jacobus, I really miss the convenience of just going upstairs and getting what we need… I would be okay with this arrangement if it were for a short time, but it’s been almost a year and we were promised this earlier.”
It is not possible to provide access to Humphreys outside of these hours. According to Sara Klein, the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs, “No student organization is permitted to have a key to access the Humphreys storage area as this is a shared storage space, and our staff needs to closely manage access. Any organization that needs access to their stored items needs to plan in advance and work with the Student Life staff to access the space during regular business hours.”
However, the use of personal storage space goes against school policy. According to Klein, “Student organizations have historically stored files and memorabilia in members’ rooms, which is okay, but it is not acceptable to store organization-owned equipment in a student’s personal space. Any group doing so should contact Student Life and arrange for use of the shared storage space.”
The completion of the Gateway South building will not provide additional storage. Instead, administrators expect that the completion of the Alexander House will provide sufficient storage space for cultural organizations. Liliana Delman, the Assistant Director for Diversity Education, stated, “The Gateway Academic Center is not a designated space for student organization storage. We will soon have storage space available in Alexander House.”
The standard process for obtaining storage space is for an organization to contact their Student Life liaison and arrange for additional storage, and Student Life is ready and willing to work with these organizations to solve this issue. According to Klein, “Any student organization in need of storage space should connect with their liaison in Student Life and we are happy to accommodate as many storage needs as we are able.”
In addition, Alexander House should be finished soon. The completion of the Alexander House has been postponed since its original completion date in January of this year, according to a Stute article from last November. When asked for an update on the construction, Klein stated, “Alexander House is well on its way to completion. It is our hope to move to the space before the end of the fall semester. There is a good amount of storage space for student organizations in the Alexander House basement.”
The completion of Alexander House will increase the available storage space on campus. Until then, these organizations and Student Life will need to work together to secure more storage space on campus.
Interested readers can contact the Director of Student Life, Leo Pedraza, at lpedraza@stevens.edu or the ESC at esc@stevens.edu or attend their next general body meeting on October 15 at 9 p.m. in Babbio 210.
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