Expanding
to the future
Rachel
Moten, posted Sept. 26, 2006
In
Brady Commons, clusters of students stand around in the food
court, the bookstore and in the halls. Whether student organizations
are working downstairs in their office rooms or getting something
to eat, it Brady Commons stays crowded. “There has never
been enough space to serve the campus needs,” said Jeff
Zeilenga, Missouri Student Association’s assistant vice
chancellor. “MSA held a referendum to ascertain their
[students] level of interest.”
If students walk by Kuhlman Court, they will notice a tall,
stone object. “Campus Facilities and the New Student
Center project built the wall,” said Zeilenga. “It
is a construction requirement. We want to see the way the
material will look in the area of the campus where the building
will reside. This will be a very large building and an important
building to the campus. We want to be sure it compliments
MU and its architecture.”
MSA has taken action to expand Brady Commons because for nearly
10 years, Associate Director Mary Flatt, and Director of Student
Auxiliary Services Jeff Zeilenger, along with other students
have inspired MSA to begin a project for a new student center.
The wall is called Mini Stonehenge, but the “political
term for the wall is Slice of the Future,” said Natalie
Strobl, marketing intern for the project. “It gives
you a feel for what Brady will look like,” said Michelle
Compton, MSA senate clerk.
“Students have expressed their needs for it through
various surveys that have been created in the 90s,”
said Strobl. On the surveys, “MU students asked for
more dining options, more social or hangout spaces, more study
spaces, more seating, programming spaces, meeting spaces and
entertainment venues,” said Zeilenga.
Next week from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., MSA plans to have a table
near the fountain outside of Brady Common with samples of
stone. MSA wants feedback from students about what they like
and what they don’t like about the exterior stones for
the new Brady. For instance, should the stone be lighter or
should the stone’s color be orange? The continued theme
of the project is to get students’ input, said Strobl.
“There will be opportunity for every person that has
organized space to have more because they’ve kind of
grown into each other,” said Compton. Initially Brady
Commons was built for few people, but the new Brady will “provide
more hang-out spaces and meet the needs of kids now,”
said Strobl.
The new Student Center will contain a restaurant for Shack’s,
which used to be where the Alumni Center is, double lounges
with seating spaces because right now there is no where for
students to study and will allow students to hang out.
There also will be “a senate chamber for our students
and student government, two fireplaces, a relocated counseling
center and much more,” said Zeilenga.
This expansion will also help the organizations that are compacted
together in Brady’s basement. “Only 30 organizations
can fit in Brady’s basement, and MU has 400 organizations.
The expansion will have an entire section for a majority of
the organizations,” said Strobl.
The bookstore will increase, so there will be more textbooks
for faculty to choose from and have for classes. For once,
faculty members will not “stay away from [Brady] because of
the issue of crowdedness … but will feel it’s their
home too, once new Brady is built,” said Strobl.
“I am confident that staff, faculty and the community
will enjoy the many facets of the new building — but,
it is being built primarily for our MU students,” said
Zeilenga.
Groundbreaking will begin on Oct. 20, 2006, at 3:30 p.m. in
the Brady parking lot. There will be free t-shirts, Shack
burgers, and Tiger Stripe ice cream. Following this is a reception
that will be held in Kulhman Court. Beetle Bailey will speak
about the project by informing the public of the project’s
updates with Beetle cartoons.
Renovation and expansion will be finished by fall of 2010,
but by fall of 2008 the expansion will be finished. During
expansion Brady Commons will still be available. “The
building will have three levels (basement and two stories).
It will be roughly twice the size of the current Brady Commons
and will extend from GCB to the corner of Hitt and Rollins,”
said Zeilenga.
For more information about the wall, expansion of Brady Commons
or to give feedback to MSA about the project visit the
New Student Center Web site.
