College opens doors for student union
Administrators anticipate Grewcock Student Union opening after five years of planning
Katherine Poythress
Issue date: 11/29/07 Section: News
A student breezes in from the quad into the Grewcock Student Union after class, checks out a wireless laptop from the student manager at the front desk, and settles into a comfortable chair in front of the two-sided fireplace to check her e-mail. But first she waves over the balcony at some friends studying in the dining hall booths below.
From her seat in the rotunda of the building, she can see groups of students playing video games, shooting pool, watching movies, and clusters of students in the café just a few feet away.
She submits a request online, and before long is surfing the Web to the sounds of her favorite bands coming from the speakers in the ceiling. Later she saunters downstairs to retrieve her mail before dinner and glances over the evening menu on the television monitor outside the dining hall.
Five years, $17.5 million, 53,000 square feet and much eager anticipation later, Hillsdale College is preparing to introduce its brand new, fully loaded Grewcock Student Union.
The campaign to build a new student union that would accommodate a growing student population began approximately in 2002. Construction on the two story building began in August 2006. Students will be able to see the finished product on Jan. 18, 2008, after they return from Christmas break.
Director of Student Activities Rebekah Dell said the Student Activities Board is planning a dedication ceremony for the building on that date. The dedication will begin at 2 p.m., and is open to the entire student body. After the ceremony ends, students will be able to explore the building, and the inaugural meal will be served in the Knorr Family Dining Room that evening.
Grewcock possesses what Vice President of Administration Rich Pewe calls a "dialed up" atmosphere and an open floor plan to encourage social interaction among students. Pewe said Grewcock contains many of the features students said they wanted to see.
"We tried to do as much as we could with the space," Pewe said. "A lot of it is flexible, too. A lot of things that can happen here that can't in the current student union."
The entire building reverberates with wireless Internet access so students can use their laptops in the building. Instead of a computer lab, there will be laptops available for checkout at the front desk, and a few computer kiosks like those in Lane and Kendall halls.
Director of Technical and Media Services Ted Matko said the student union has been equipped with only professional-grade apparatus, and it has been wired to project sound and video throughout the building.
Nearly every room and area in Grewcock has at least one projector and drop screen, and three hundred speakers have been installed to create what Matko calls "lots of coverage at a low volume."
"My goal here was to create the environment of a theme park or a high-end retail store," Matko said.
Three flat-screen televisions in the building will serve as the vehicle for a video information system on which students can advertise instead of hanging posters.
In one recreation area there will be four networked gaming stations, one in each corner of the space, Matko said. Each of the gaming stations will have a separate sound zone so the noise from other areas doesn't interfere with it.
Next door, a 100-inch high-definition screen with full surround sound will nestle in the wall.
Matko said that though he's excited about the features of the new building, he hopes students use it extensively.
"It's not my space, it's your space," Matko said.
Dell said students will be able to reserve any of the building's rooms online. If they are not reserved, Pewe said, they are open for student use.
In the upstairs commons area, a $200,000 commissioned statue of Winston Churchill sculpted by artist and alumna Heather Tritchka '98 will be installed to the left of the main entrance from the quad.
The lower level features a dining hall and servery, as well as student mailboxes and some behind-the-scenes infrastructure that Pewe said is already making the campus more energy efficient.
The servery has an open floor plan so students can see what is being made in the kitchen. It contains nine different serving platforms.
The menu at each station will be specialized and flexible. Each meal's menu will be posted outside the dining hall on a flat-screen monitor.
Kirwan said more food will be prepared with fresher ingredients than before, thanks to an increased number of refrigeration units in the new kitchen and convenient storage. Chefs will have access to ingredients without having to leave their stations.
Two "Action" stations will allow chefs to prepare food in front of students on induction cookers that will reduce cooking time. Saga Inc. General Manager Kevin Kirwan said the sauté stations will prepare dishes based on popularity, helping to reduce waste.
Kirwan said the buffet design of the servery is intended to move students away from a "tray mentality." The floor plan is supposed allow students to move through more quickly by going straight to the station they want without having to stand in line.
Pewe said the new dining hall will accommodate approximately 650 diners, and will be open to students after meal times to study, hang out or hold special events on the platform stage. The current dining facility can hold only 500 diners, "if we really pack it in," he said.
Kirwan said it will not be necessary to hire new employees to run the new dining hall, but he does anticipate a shift in the responsibilities of current ones as they adjust to the new equipment and work space.
Pewe said the project has created a substantial amount of work for the Hillsdale community. He estimated that half the project's total cost has gone directly into the local community. The completed building will create two full-time jobs for the college, as well as several part-time student jobs.
A newly landscaped quad will eventually replace the old one. The new quad, designed by alumnus Stephen Rosselet, '69, will be bigger, flatter and surrounded by more foliage than the previous one, Péwé told The Collegian in a previous report.
Hillsdale College Collegian 2007
From her seat in the rotunda of the building, she can see groups of students playing video games, shooting pool, watching movies, and clusters of students in the café just a few feet away.
She submits a request online, and before long is surfing the Web to the sounds of her favorite bands coming from the speakers in the ceiling. Later she saunters downstairs to retrieve her mail before dinner and glances over the evening menu on the television monitor outside the dining hall.
Five years, $17.5 million, 53,000 square feet and much eager anticipation later, Hillsdale College is preparing to introduce its brand new, fully loaded Grewcock Student Union.
The campaign to build a new student union that would accommodate a growing student population began approximately in 2002. Construction on the two story building began in August 2006. Students will be able to see the finished product on Jan. 18, 2008, after they return from Christmas break.
Director of Student Activities Rebekah Dell said the Student Activities Board is planning a dedication ceremony for the building on that date. The dedication will begin at 2 p.m., and is open to the entire student body. After the ceremony ends, students will be able to explore the building, and the inaugural meal will be served in the Knorr Family Dining Room that evening.
Grewcock possesses what Vice President of Administration Rich Pewe calls a "dialed up" atmosphere and an open floor plan to encourage social interaction among students. Pewe said Grewcock contains many of the features students said they wanted to see.
"We tried to do as much as we could with the space," Pewe said. "A lot of it is flexible, too. A lot of things that can happen here that can't in the current student union."
The entire building reverberates with wireless Internet access so students can use their laptops in the building. Instead of a computer lab, there will be laptops available for checkout at the front desk, and a few computer kiosks like those in Lane and Kendall halls.
Director of Technical and Media Services Ted Matko said the student union has been equipped with only professional-grade apparatus, and it has been wired to project sound and video throughout the building.
Nearly every room and area in Grewcock has at least one projector and drop screen, and three hundred speakers have been installed to create what Matko calls "lots of coverage at a low volume."
"My goal here was to create the environment of a theme park or a high-end retail store," Matko said.
Three flat-screen televisions in the building will serve as the vehicle for a video information system on which students can advertise instead of hanging posters.
In one recreation area there will be four networked gaming stations, one in each corner of the space, Matko said. Each of the gaming stations will have a separate sound zone so the noise from other areas doesn't interfere with it.
Next door, a 100-inch high-definition screen with full surround sound will nestle in the wall.
Matko said that though he's excited about the features of the new building, he hopes students use it extensively.
"It's not my space, it's your space," Matko said.
Dell said students will be able to reserve any of the building's rooms online. If they are not reserved, Pewe said, they are open for student use.
In the upstairs commons area, a $200,000 commissioned statue of Winston Churchill sculpted by artist and alumna Heather Tritchka '98 will be installed to the left of the main entrance from the quad.
The lower level features a dining hall and servery, as well as student mailboxes and some behind-the-scenes infrastructure that Pewe said is already making the campus more energy efficient.
The servery has an open floor plan so students can see what is being made in the kitchen. It contains nine different serving platforms.
The menu at each station will be specialized and flexible. Each meal's menu will be posted outside the dining hall on a flat-screen monitor.
Kirwan said more food will be prepared with fresher ingredients than before, thanks to an increased number of refrigeration units in the new kitchen and convenient storage. Chefs will have access to ingredients without having to leave their stations.
Two "Action" stations will allow chefs to prepare food in front of students on induction cookers that will reduce cooking time. Saga Inc. General Manager Kevin Kirwan said the sauté stations will prepare dishes based on popularity, helping to reduce waste.
Kirwan said the buffet design of the servery is intended to move students away from a "tray mentality." The floor plan is supposed allow students to move through more quickly by going straight to the station they want without having to stand in line.
Pewe said the new dining hall will accommodate approximately 650 diners, and will be open to students after meal times to study, hang out or hold special events on the platform stage. The current dining facility can hold only 500 diners, "if we really pack it in," he said.
Kirwan said it will not be necessary to hire new employees to run the new dining hall, but he does anticipate a shift in the responsibilities of current ones as they adjust to the new equipment and work space.
Pewe said the project has created a substantial amount of work for the Hillsdale community. He estimated that half the project's total cost has gone directly into the local community. The completed building will create two full-time jobs for the college, as well as several part-time student jobs.
A newly landscaped quad will eventually replace the old one. The new quad, designed by alumnus Stephen Rosselet, '69, will be bigger, flatter and surrounded by more foliage than the previous one, Péwé told The Collegian in a previous report.
Hillsdale College Collegian 2007
Be the first to comment on this story