Editor's Note
Robert Proudfoot
Issue date: 4/20/05 Section: Editor's Picks
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Versus Magazine Online [Image based format]
I fully and wholeheartedly support the concept and implementation of residential colleges on Vanderbilt's campus. Within this context, I must state that I am disappointed with Vanderbilt's Student Life Center.
My biggest grievance I have with the Student Life Center is one of nomenclature. The building is beautiful and serves its stated purposes. But, please, why did it have to be called the Student Life Center? Where is the student in the Student Life Center? The building seems to address the needs of students after their time at Vanderbilt. With the fundraisers and Career Center, it would seem to provide an excellent Life Center for students after graduation. I propose this new building be called the Lawson Center after James Lawson, Vanderbilt's expelled civil rights activist. It's about time he recieved credit.
I was shocked to find there were no student amenities in the building we will forever call the Student Life Center. Where the dining facilities? Ro*Tiki doesn't embody my idea of a social eating atmosphere (it isn't even in the building). Where are the meeting areas? The meeting areas in the basement are wonderful, but less focus should have been placed on the parking garage and more on additional meeting rooms. Oh, and I there were meeting rooms that students didn't have to pay for on the weekend. How much can possibly be gained by charging cash-strapped student organizations?
Again and again, a majority of students asked for a large social gathering space in which to hang out with their friends. Perhaps there was miscommunication because the students I have talked with envisioned a Student Union. Just because we don't have a population large enough to support a full-fledged union similar to Indiana, doesn't mean that we don't deserve a large social space. I mean social space in the sense of hanging out with friends, not a "social" with dancing. Perhaps there is a generational gap in the meaning of the word.
Where's the bowling alley? How many misinformed students are going to ask this question again and again? While there never were any plans for a bowling alley in the final design, isn't this a sign that there should have been more communication and surveying of students' demands? Admittedly, there might not have been a huge demand for a bowling alley, but it is easy to observe that Vanderbilt students wanted something, anything to congregate in on campus.