Building a student center: an unrealized dream?

By Ewan MacDougall and Kelly Rohrs

After Krauszer's closes next week, students will have to endure a month and a half with no late-night snack option between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. Even after the gentrified Krauszer's—otherwise known as Gourmet Heaven—opens, Yale might still lack an on-campus, 24-hour option. So come spring semester, where will students go for that Jolt Cola or French Vanilla coffee? Most college butteries close around midnight, and there's never been any sort of student center for late-night studying and food. To solve the problem, Princeton and Columbia recently opened brand-new campus centers of their own. Is Yale next?

An abandoned plan

Over the past seven years, there has been much discussion about creating a student center. Faced with a shortage of space for student activities, the Administration considered creating a full-scale student center with performance space, student offices, lounges and late-night eateries in 1994. A committee was formed to investigate the pros and cons of such a center and preliminary architectural plans were drawn up. But the project was abandoned for lack of funding. "We really haven't given [a student center] any serious consideration since [then]," Yale President Richard Levin, GRD '74, said.

But a few years ago, it certainly was a different story. "The president and the dean both would like to do it," Yale's Deputy Provost Charles Long told the Yale Daily News on Mar. 7, 1996, referring the possible construction of a student center. Long failed to return repeated requests for an interview from the Herald this week.

Aware of the lack of space for student organizations to meet, the shortage of performance and rehearsal space, and the limited selection for late night dining, University officials still have tried to provide separate solutions for the myriad of complaints that a student center would seem to resolve. "If you look at what we've done in terms of increased space for music, practice rooms, performance spaces, we've been doing a good job," Levin said. "In two or three years, we will deliver the same amenities that a student center would."

(Un)suitable spaces?

Over the past few years, dance groups, bands, and cultural associations have all struggled to adapt their performances to imperfect conditions and accommodate their audiences in sub-par venues. The Chinese-American Students Association (CASA) hosted two major events last year—Eclipse, held in Commons; and a cultural show with choreographed performances and music, held in Silliman's dining hall. Edward Teng, TC '01, president of CASA, explained the difficulties of putting up such a show. "There's not really a nice space intended for performances," he said. "There's no space with tiered seating, a sizeable or concealed backstage, or even a stage in a large auditorium. And the best undergraduate facilities are reserved for drama."

Student groups are often forced to use dining halls—where visibility is poor and groups are forced to rearrange tables, chairs, and salad bars—as performance venues.

The lack of space also restricts Yale's party scene because of the on-campus "one o'clock lights out" rule. "If events could be hosted outside the residential colleges, there would be less concern about noise and disturbance and we could run events longer," Teng said.

Bands and dance groups are also pressed for performance space. Many Yale-based bands end up performing in dining halls and at the Women's Center, an unlikely venue for many types of music. Existing spaces are either too big or too small and also become "sweatboxes" when filled with audience members, Matthew Dunkel, JE '01, of Cabeza de Vaca, a popular Yale band, said.

Dance groups noted the difficulties of securing adequate performance space. Elana Solon, SY '01, co-president of Rhythmic Blue, said, "There are always groups barging in on other groups during rehearsals." She praised the construction of the new Off-Broadway Theater space, but the floors are cement and therefore not conducive to dance, she said. The seating in the new theater is also limited. Like other student organizations, Rhythmic Blue often resorts to performing in dining halls where the group has to create its own stage and provide a sound and lighting system.

But Yale has recently begun to create more performance spaces and other social centers for students, simultaneously revamping the residential colleges and other student areas, including the Payne-Whitney Gymnasium, which had been neglected for years. As residential colleges are renovated, their common room space and butteries have become more inviting. On Wed., Dec. 6, the new Off-Broadway Theater, a space built specifically for undergraduate use, officially opened. Plans are also underway for more student office space at several campus locations. Levin said two-thirds of the top floor of the Urban Outfitters building, now slated to open in 2001, will contain space for student meetings and student-accessible fax machines.

COURTESY VENTURI, SCOTT BROWN AND ASSOCIATES An artist's rendering of the new Frist Campus Center, which opened at Princeton this October.

As part of the effort to solve the lack of late-night food on campus, University officials have attempted to draw merchants to the Broadway area. The Ivy Noodle, which opened last spring, serves food until 2 a.m. Gourmet Heaven, an upscale convenience store set to replace Krauszer's, might be open 24 hours and will offer seating for customers. Plans are also in the works to revamp Machine City in the basement of Cross Campus Library. Levin told the YCC in September that the renovations of the library would include a "place for meals, a social space, and lots of breakout spaces for groups or sections or TAs." There are also plans to extend the underground space as far as High Street and put in a full service café.

School administrators believe that these improvements are sufficient to take the place of a single student center. "With newer eateries opening on Broadway, there will be no dearth of options," Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg said, reinforcing her belief that a student center was not a necessary addition to undergraduate life.

"I think [a student center] really does change the character of campus life," Levin said. "To put in a substantial center would make residential life meaningless. If you are making a place where there are 2,000 people every night, it will draw people out of the colleges."

The lobby

But despite arguments that a universal center would distract students from residential college life, the project has been on the agenda of the Yale College Council for at least the past 10 years. "Lobbying for the creation of a student center was important to the YCC and me, personally, during my tenure in YCC because many Yale students asked us to pursue it," former YCC president Zachary Kaufman, SY '00, said. But in recent years, the YCC has devoted its time to other efforts.

Current YCC president Libby Smiley, JE '02, has said that no matter how hard the YCC pushes for a center, the Administration claims there is a lack of funding. Because of this perpetual impasse, creation of a student center has slipped in priority for the YCC. But the council continues to support such a space, arguing that there still exists no place on campus where students from different colleges can come together.

A universal space could help to draw different type of organizations together and possibly inspire inter-organizational relationships that have remained unexplored. "I don't think it would detract from the residential colleges, but actually enhance student life," Smiley said. "A student center could offer a place to centrally congregate. It could unify the campus. It could offer something this campus doesn't have."

Such has been the effect of an extensive new student center at Princeton, despite a house dormitory system similar to Yale's residential colleges. The Frist Campus Center, a $48 million, 185,000-square-foot facility spanning six stories opened at the beginning of this semester. Paul Breitman, the center's inaugural director, marveled at the profound effect the student center has had on campus life. "Faculty, staff, and students interact outside class," Breitman said. "People get out of offices and buildings and come together. A campus needs a place where everyone can come together on equal footing to meet, learn, talk, and understand each other."

Breitman said that when the center was initially proposed, people were afraid it would detract from the house system, but "now that the center is operational, the detractors and naysayers have gone away." He added that the center functions as an additional venue for the houses to hold programs. "The center does not compete with the houses; it supplements them," he said.

P.J. Kim '01, president of Princeton's Undergraduate Student Council, explained the positive effect the has had on student life. "It's a great common social space that belongs to everyone," he said. "It adds tremendously to the social life, and it has supplemented the existing structure fantastically."

Centuries away

Despite the success of student centers at colleges across the country, Yale still maintains that students' needs will be best served by public spaces that individually address concerns about performance space, dining options and student office space. They feel the unique residential college system is best preserved by decentralizing these structures. Despite the bleak forecast, those hoping for a student center may be waiting for a while. Discussions at Princeton lasted 120 years. Woodrow Wilson was one of its first prominent proponents, and it only opened this semester.

Graphic by Erin I. Lewis. Yuka Igarashi contributed to this article.

Back to News...