Student Events to take over old barbershop space

The Utah State University Student Association Student Events office is expected to move from the third floor of the TSC, USUSA President Lucas Stevens announced in a USUSA Executive Council  meeting on March 22.

The office is currently located in TSC 329, near other USUSA offices including those designated for the Executive Council and the Academic Senate. According to Stevens, it is planned to be moved down two floors into TSC 120, the space previously occupied by the USU Barbershop, which closed its doors earlier this year.

TSC 329 will then be occupied by Fraternity and Sorority Life. The coordinator for FSL, Ian Nemelka, said the move will be good for his organization.

“In partnership with USUSA, FSL supplements a student’s personal development and enhances the college experience through a commitment to high ideals,” Nemelka said. “To have a space specifically designated towards achieving these pursuits is a great honor and privilege.”

Nemelka also said he hopes the move will help FSL continue to grow on campus.

The current Student Events vice president, Alexis Needleman, also said she is excited about the move, but it took some time to accept the idea.

“The more we’ve talked about it, the more excited I get,” Needleman said. “We’re going to move down to the first floor and have more interaction with students. It’ll be great for campus tours and the visibility with people walking back and forth.”

Needleman also said she hopes being near the USU Student Media office, in TSC 118, will help increase communication among student involvement groups.

“We will be able to just pop in and out of each other’s offices,” Needleman said. “We will be able to chat rather than sending messages and waiting for a response.”

Needleman said this communication will provide benefits in creating a better relationship between student media and the rest of Student Involvement and Leadership.

The current Student Events series director, Ben Scheffner, said marketing and recruiting for events will also be positively impacted.

“If students are fresh out of high school, they’ve still got that spirit to start college,” Scheffner said. “It’ll motivate them to want to join student events and want to get involved.”

Dakota Oldham, the incoming Student Events director for the 2022-23 academic year, shared similar excitement about the move and explained some goals for the office in the coming year.

“We want to create a space for a lot of people to feel welcomed,” Oldham said. “Because the location is so great, more people will be seeing our faces, know about events and be excited to attend them.”

According to the Executive Council minutes from March 22, Stevens highlighted the increase in foot traffic near the new Student Events office, and an opportunity to break the stigma around USUSA exclusiveness.

Scheffner addressed the idea of USUSA exclusiveness, also called the “third-floor mentality,” which is the idea that the lounges and USUSA offices located on the third floor of the TSC create an exclusive social environment for officers.

“I think a lot of people just don’t know what’s on the third floor,” Scheffer said. “There’s video games, lounges and other fun stuff that I don’t think is well-known to students.”

Scheffner and Needleman both agreed that moving their office down from the third floor will create more visibility, and hopefully make USUSA officers more accessible and appear less exclusive.

“If we’re down there, we’re more accessible,” Needleman said. “People know that the people who are behind the scenes planning exist, and they’re not located somewhere where they can’t come up and see us.”

There is currently no anticipated timeline for when the offices will officially be relocated.

-Jared.Adams@usu.edu

Featured photo illustration by: Phil Weber