Club meeting rooms, large-scale events, gathering space for friends. These are just a few of the purposes that the Student Union Building serves to the student body. Yet, as of Monday, Nov. 6, the Student Union Building officially closed its Multipurpose Room along with the third floor due to renovations.
These renovations aren’t sudden or new. In an informational published back in September highlighting the various construction projects across campus for the 2023-2024 school year, Facilities Management stated that the project will, “[create a] new meeting space and a lounge for student clubs, a new multicultural center and a new E-Sports center, as well as [upgrade] the food pantry and faith and student services offices.” Being in the planning stage for years, these renovations will provide students with well-needed upgrades in both the quality and sustainability aspects of these spaces.
For Ashley Walker, Director of the Center of Student Engagement, she is looking forward to these areas of the building stepping up their game. Coming from two institutions with those upgrades already in place, Walker wants “to see the best of the best on-campus venue with updated technology and furniture for all events hosted in the MPR.” In regards to the 3rd floor, Walker is also “ looking forward to [it] being up to par with the fourth floor.” The fourth floor — which recently completed its renovations in 2021 — boasted upgrades to its student media groups’ spaces, acoustic improvements to club meeting rooms and a new multipurpose dance studio for students to use.
Regarding future events traditionally held in these spaces, Walker assured that the Center for Student Engagement has been working with “student organizations, campus departments/offices and external constituents” who traditionally held events in the MPR to seek out alternative locations while the renovations are underway. They are also collaborating with the Student Association in reaching out to off-campus venues willing to host future events. This work is necessary in order to ensure that events can continue to run and be made available to as many students as possible.
With these renovations, students will now have new spaces to look forward to for their future campus-wide events, club meeting spots and student-oriented spaces. Though it will be a while until any final product—as the project is estimated to be completed by mid-2025—this progress demonstrates good signs of campus—improvement efforts, which aim to upgrade the quality of student life.
Students or organizations with any questions regarding these changes should direct them to the Center for Student Engagement: cse@newpaltz.edu