Mia Fischel, Asst. Features Editor—
DCGA recently passed a $150,000 initiative to renovate the space beneath Huffman and create a new campus workspace. Requests from student organizations led to suggestions for using this mostly vacant space. The bill cites a “consistent need for storage, versatile meeting space and a sense of permanency.”
The bill passed unanimously by the DCGA senate on Tuesday, March 22. The project is spearheaded by DCGA President Alex Pan ‘24, who hopes to create a maker space “by students for the students.”
“When students think about an inclusive space to create, I want them to think of here,” Pan said. “The character of this space should be inclusive, creative, collaborative and also central. Like a little mini Slayter. Think about it like the new student union.”
The unused space sits in close proximity to other resources like the Wellness Center, Spiritual Life, Huffman Dining Hall and The Bandersnatch. Pan hopes that it will provide students on East Quad with a more accessible space for collaboration and entrepreneurship and therefore will retain more people on the quad.
“This is like the gemstone, the key to it all,” Pan said. “Students can really take advantage of this as a workspace, a collaborative space–I want this to be the hallmark of inclusivity. Any student can come here and access the best technology, the best resources and everything that we have to offer. We will invest the hell out of this space.”
For more than 19 years, the space has been left untouched. Student Conduct occupied one office up until 2022, and another room served as a computer lab, but otherwise it was primarily vacant or used for storage.
“We had to lock [the computer lab] at 2 a.m. back in the old days, but there were always students in here using the computers and I was kind of surprised that they took that part out,” Campus Safety Officer Thomas Baldwin said. “It’s very convenient for students on East Quad. There’s really not much for them to do over here.”
The old computer lab already has outlets and electric capacity, so Pan plans to invest in a few computers with a variety of software and programs students can use. With computers in a central, convenient location, it would allow Denison to consolidate spending on technology and give clubs the ability to save money on things like poster creation.
“It saves us money, and when we save money, students save money and we actually get to do more,” Pan said. “We’re empowering every student to go in and create. This could be a great space for entrepreneurs.”
This project marks the first large DCGA capital campaign since renovation of The Nest about 10 years ago, which cost $279,000. Pan takes inspiration from CoHatch collaborative spaces in Columbus, which he plans to tour and model the space after.
Phase one of the renovation, which alone is expected to cost $150,000, will cover only the basic renovations. Any major structural changes would put a dent in that budget, so the current plan involves maintaining the foundation of the building and only changing the paint, floors, doors, furniture and other elements to make the space usable.
“Structural material is expensive. 10 years ago, we could’ve gone really far with $150,000, but we will not be able to go as far,” said Dr. Nicole Ausmer, Associate Vice President/Dean of Student Life and DCGA’s advisor. “So for Phase one we just want to be able to have student organizations occupy the space and then Phase two we can talk about the beautification of it and more costly, large capital purchases like computers and printers.”
Phase one renovations will take place over the summer and the space will be open to students and organizations by the fall with specific rooms available for reservation on What to DU.