Students vote on TSC 3rd floor remodel
Students voted on a new floor plan for the third floor of the Taggart Student Center on Tuesday. The winner was Design D with Design A coming in a close second, with 339 students casting votes.
Spencer Lee, ASUSU cabinet member, was asked to head the project. Lee said Design D did not follow the specifications closely enough. One of the requirements for the project was to incorporate the table that is currently on the third floor. Tradition has it that the table came from the President’s Office in Old Main. Design D used this table as a light fixture and not as a table. For the space to be able to function as it does now, that table needs to be used as a table, Lee said.
The council still wants to respect and honor what the students chose, so they are going to try to follow the design as closely as they can, trying to incorporate ideas from the other designs to make it feasible, Lee said.
Student Body President Grady Brimley said he came up with the idea before he ran for election, making it one of his platforms for being elected. He said he wanted to make the area more of a hang-out space. His said his hopes with this plan are to be able to have more communications between the ASUSU council and the student body.
Lee said, “We really wanted to eliminate the feeling of elites that has existed and in some ways still exists when the terminology of third floor is used.”
Brimley said the floor plan that won will be the one that they will go with, hoping to have it done by next semester.
Gary Chambers, vice president for student services, had a big role in this project. This was something he really wanted to see done, he said. He will be retiring in the spring and Lee said the council is happy to see that the plan is completed by the time he retires.
The plans were drawn up by the senior interior design students under the direction of Darrin Brooks, interior design professor. It only took the students a week and a half to put together the plans, Lee said.
“Props to them for that,” Lee said.
There was a $25,000 budget for the project, and all the groups kept the costs for their plans within that budget, Lee said. Brimley had a lot to do with raising the money. Brimley worked with alumni and administration to come up with the funds, Lee said.
Another thing that the council requested to see in the plans was a keyboard kiosk. On the computers they would also like to have quick links to the e-mails of the ASUSU council so that if they have comments or concerns they can come up and e-mail them to the council, Lee said.
“Students should take use of it and if you ever have questions or concerns, come on up,” Brimley said.
Lee agreed with Brimley, also encouraging students to take advantage of the friendlier atmosphere.
“Come on up to the third floor and play some pingpong, hang out with friends and get to know the ASUSU officers,” he said.
Construction was originally set for October, but some redesigning will need to be done. They hope to be able to have the redesigning done in a couple weeks and have bids out to the construction companies by the end of this month, Lee said.
–tazya.williams@aggiemail.usu.edu