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Printer-Friendly ModeConstruction opens up rooms for RSO events
April 4, 2011 —
With the construction in Curtiss Hall this semester, students can look forward to more space for registered student organization (RSO) meetings this fall.
Kim Brandimore, director of Student Life, said these additions will give students options when scheduling on-campus events.
“It will spread our student action in a much broader way and make it feel even more like a college campus,” she said.
Rooms such as the Student Activities Room, Alumni Lounge and the Roberta Allen Reading Room are used for most RSO events. Brandimore said that more space in the additions might provide less competition for use of these rooms.
“We have over 133 RSOs and most have weekly meetings,” she said.
With more than 100 classrooms used for meetings, she said privacy is a key reason for many RSOs’ use of smaller classrooms in Brown Hall and in Science East.
All room requests begin in the Student Life Center, so Brandimore sees and understands the need and competition for extra space.
“We just don’t want all the fun to happen in the Student Life Center,” she said.
RSOs that use classrooms outside of the Doan Building and the Student Life Center must go through the Conference and Events Center to hold a room. With construction lasting into the summer, students will have the option in the fall to request rooms in Curtiss Hall’s first and second floor classrooms.
The Conference and Events Center, located on the second floor of Curtiss, also fills room requests for group meetings involving the community, such as the Saginaw and Bay area chapter of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Mary Walk, assistant director of Conference and Events, said that the office wants to accommodate all groups that come in.
“We try to use the space well,” she said.
Events open to the public often are in the Rhea Miller Recital Hall in Curtiss or the Roberta Allen Reading Room in Zahnow Library. These public events are coordinated through the Conference Events Center.
Walk said that she suggests RSOs looking to request a room should be flexible with the date and time of the event and to request early.
She also said that the office will work to find the perfect place for what RSOs need.
“We try to find the right room for that activity,” Walk said.
Groups such as Student Association and Program Board utilize rooms with open windows, such as the Alumni Lounge, to promote the group to passersby. Brandimore said that the choice of these rooms is an attempt to interest students in the RSO.
“They are trying to encourage people to attend,” she said.
With the University bookstore moving from the Doan Building to Curtiss Hall for the fall semester, in addition to a new coffee shop, more students will be in Curtiss than in previous years.
“It should bring Curtiss Hall to life and will really lend space to give more space to RSOs,” Brandimore said.