Last week, President Nariman Farvardin cut the ribbon at the ceremonial opening of the new Student Center. This new space, which underwent roughly two years of renovation and was previously known as Alexander House, will be the location in which student organizations, the Intercultural Space, new common areas, and Undergraduate Student Life will be located moving forward.
Prior to the ribbon-cutting, Farvardin gave a speech expressing his thoughts about the new building. “This project has been in the works for too long,” he said, “watching the progress of this project with a tremendous amount of interest over the course of the past maybe a little over two years. From the day I arrived at this university, when I went to what used to be called Jacobus, I said, ‘This is not exactly the best place for a student-centric university.’ We need to do better, and I am delighted that after 8 years, and two years of construction, and a tremendous amount of anguish, we now have a place for our students and their colleagues who serve our students, worthy of the kind of work they do. It’s a place that is open and bright, and new and smells good inside. I hope all of you are enjoying it.”
Last year, the previous location of the Student Center, Jacobus Hall — along with Hayden Hall and its large student lounge — were torn down for the construction of the University Center/Student Housing project. While the student center was being completed, the student offices were temporarily moved to the 7th floor of the Howe building.
Student organizations are generally enjoying their new spaces. Andrew Kinney, the Outreach Chair of The Stute, explained that “The Stute really enjoys our office; we have more space here than we had in Jacobus if you don’t count our old EIC [Editor in Chief] office, which really didn’t get used a ton […] We also really appreciate having the student conference room across the hall be open throughout the entire day. It’s very useful to have that extra space, especially on Thursday when we have a lot of people in the office to do layout.”
The Honor Board said that “though [they] may miss [their] old view from the Howe Center, [they] see being housed in Stevens’ newest building as being part of its future, and that is a wonderful thing to be a part of.” The Stevens radio show, WCPR, says that “It’s nice. It’s good to have a space that we can call home.”
The Student Government Association also enjoys their new space, with one person saying, “It’s not falling apart like Jacobus.”
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