Campus Center Planning Committee

Minutes from Meeting on January 5, 2006

In attendance:  Peter Bennett, Ken Bozeman, Harold Ginke, Lynn Hagee, Steve Hirby, Joy Jordan, Nathan Litt, Patrick Niles, Paul Shrode, Nancy Truesdell

Minutes from the November 28, 2005 meeting were distributed, and committee members were asked to review and send corrections to Nancy.  After the committee reviews minutes of each meeting, the minutes will be posted on the Campus Planning portion of the website.

Peter and Nathan updated the committee on the informal discussions they had with students who viewed the floor plan boards late last term.  Students offered no real objections to dining being on the lowest level (feedback/confirmation of that scheme was the purpose in showing the boards) especially after explanations were provided, but there was indication that some students are uninformed about the rationale for inclusion of some of the spaces within the Campus Center.  Isolated students raised questions about the need for a cinema, student organization space, and for the Campus Center itself, but the committee agreed that (a) it may be difficult for those students who will have graduated by the time the facility is completed to be particularly enthused and (b) once these students engage in conversation about the goals of the building, they usually feel differently.

The committee reviewed written responses from the question posed about items to be included in the Campus Store.  There was considerable discussion about ways to be certain faculty and staff would be drawn to the building, and suggestions were made including sale of the New York Times, post office services, and sale of convenience grocery items such as milk and bread.

Patrick and Lynn described the ongoing work with the kitchen consultants.  There was discussion about menu items in the various food venues, necessary flexibility of the servery and dining layout to allow for future change, payment options (i.e., “all-you-care-to-eat” vs. declining balance), meeting room spaces for meal-time meetings, and the issue of taking food from the dining area to other places within the building.  The architects may suggest flip-flopping the new Barber Room with the student program space, and the committee discussed pros and cons of such a move.

It was decided that next week’s meeting will be devoted to selecting topics for small group feedback meetings and determining the right people to invite.  We will schedule those discussions so that some (but not all) committee members will be in attendance. Also, we hope to have a session soon with the landscape and environmental design professionals to discuss LEEDS and site clearing that can commence in the near future.

Copies of the minutes from Workshops 1 and 2 were distributed along with an article about campus convenience stores.

Next meeting:  Thursday, January 12 – Library 401