The topic this week is student interaction on a college campus and the costs of losing this interaction. This subject is one that I have been faced to really think about recently. A student lounge on campus in which I am currently employed is more than likely going to close after this semester. This lounge doesn’t make obscene amounts of money. We do not serve cheeseburgers, tacos, or sub sandwiches. We only have one XBox 360 and one computer that works. This lounge definitely does not display the bells and whistles that some would expect, but for so many students, this place has become a staple in their everyday lives and an enduring memory of their undergraduate experience.
On football weekends, this lounge becomes Chuck E. Cheese’s. Kids and teens are everywhere. They play the games, eat Hot Pocket after Hot Pocket, and some just hangout. It becomes a place for them to hang out when their socialization has not quite graduated to the Grove.
Everyday, this lounge sees ALL kinds of students: campus leaders, athletes, history buffs, billiards experts, the not-so-good billiards players, international students, black students, white students, males, females, the list can go on and on.
Students come upstairs to this lounge during lunch when they actually want to converse while eating. Most say it’s hard to do that in an overcrowded food court where the next table can hear every word you say even when you can’t. This lounge serves as a meeting place for student organizations who can’t get a room reservation and can’t afford to meet in off-campus facilities.
Historically black Greek organizations use this lounge to host a number of activities because they don’t have a house to do otherwise.
Students who are trying to find a friend through natural interaction come to this lounge because they know that it’s probably the only place in which that could happen. A freshman once said to me, “Man, I can come up here and leave with three new friends every time, easily.” This is resounding, considering that most of us make more Facebook friends that physical friends each day.
This lounge offers students the laid-back atmosphere that most crave in which to interact with the world. They can come here and not expect to wait in lines, talk to a receptionist, check their backpack at the door, and whisper. Some students come here to survive. One student has said, “If it wasn’t for this place, I don’t think I could have made it here my freshman year. I probably would have transferred.”
I’m not saying if it’s good or bad that the lounge is closing in order to bring in revenue under a different format because honestly, I do not know. But I do know that an outlet for students to interact and embrace collegiality will be lost. Will students eventually migrate to another place? Of course. But man, wasn’t this lounge good while it lasted?
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