Major changes coming to Taggart Student Center next year
Changes are coming to the Taggart Student Center this summer which could bring new offerings for students.
A domino effect of changes is being brought on in part because of the hiring of six new advisers to help out in a central advising center.
During the summer, the Cashiers Office will move to the east part of the Registrar’s Office, the Women’s Center will move to The Utah Statesman’s current newsroom, the tutoring center will move to The Utah Statesman’s business office, Student Orientation Advising and Registration Offices will expand to the current Women’s Center offices and the Counseling Center will also expand into portions of the current Women’s Center, said Gary Chambers, assistant vice president for Student Life, in Tuesday’s ASUSU executive meeting.
The current Cashiers Office will be demolished and the Juniper Lounge area will be made into an area exclusively for students and The Utah Statesman will move to the first floor of the TSC where the Bull Pen is located.
Chambers said there has been decreased use of the Bull Pen over a 10-year period.
“The use of the game room is really diminishing outside of class use,” he said. “This year … that game room will lose $52,000.”
Chambers said the only revenue for the Bull Pen is from lab fees for billiards classes and free time use of billiards tables.
“That’s a concern when you’re a self-operating building [like the TSC],” Chambers said.
Billiards classes would still be offered at Utah State University, Chambers said, because the billiards tables would be moved to the Fieldhouse. With the expansion of the second floor of the Fieldhouse scheduled for this summer, the free weights in the building would be moved to the new expansion and the tables would be moved to the west side of the Fieldhouse.
The Juniper Lounge on the east side of the TSC will be made into an area for students to use however they want, Chambers said.
“I can see eventually putting some windows across that wall that is on the south and a doorway that goes out,” he said. “[We could] put some umbrella tables out there, reactivate the gas logs [in the fireplaces] … you can start to get a sense of how fun that would be for students.”
The Associated Students of Utah State University offered their unanimous support for any effort to give more of the TSC to students Tuesday when they approved $25,000 from Capital and Support funds to go toward remodeling and purchasing student-preferred furniture.
When Chambers presented the proposed changes to the TSC to ASUSU, he asked the council if they could let Vice President of Student Services Juan Franco know how students felt about proposed changes so Franco could tell Hall. ASUSU said it supports the changes with approval of the bill.
“It’s moving along quickly. If we don’t support it, no one supports it,” said Executive Vice President Ariel Thrapp. “Everything downstairs, opening up the lounge, it can’t happen without our support.”
Student Advocate Vice President Les Essig – who is also next year’s ASUSU president – pumped his fist in the air after the council approved his bill. Getting more space in the TSC for students was one of his platform issues for his presidential campaign.
Chambers said plans for changes would be presented to President Kermit L. Hall and his executive committee Wednesday morning. Since no plans have been approved yet, no designs and changes have been made official yet.
“We don’t want to lose services for students but we have to try to accommodate needs for all these other things that are going on,” Chambers said.
Chambers said the remodeling to the various areas of the TSC could be completed by the middle of August.
-str@cc.usu.edu