WILL KARR
Special to The Leader
After receiving news last spring of Tim Horton’s upcoming closure in the Williams Center, Khristian King, executive director of Student Engagement and Inclusion, came up with a plan to reinvent the space. Now, she is working to help make the Williams Center the epicenter of campus life.
In recent years, while students have consistently gravitated towards other buildings on campus like University Commons, this year, King is hoping the student union will once again become the main gathering place.
“The ultimate goal is that I want this building to be noisy,” King said. “I want to hear laughter, and see people making TikTok videos. I want to see what you would normally expect from a student union — that is our hope.”
Student Engagement and Inclusion (SEI) advocates for the needs of students. This summer, the group partnered with Academic Success and Retention (ASR) to revamp the space previously occupied by Tim Horton’s into what’s now the Blue Lounge.
Last spring, the college received a grant from SUNY focused on promoting wellness. The group used the funding to help furnish the lounge with massage chairs, soft-seating and a fireplace. However, what started out as an effort to preserve a single space has since transitioned into an effort to revitalize the multiple facets of the building.
King said SEI came together with ASR to take a “holistic look” at the union. She conducted focus groups and interviews with numerous students in the union, asking questions about their favorite spots on campus. Out of the 43 total students that she interviewed, only three students mentioned the student union.
She said that this experience ultimately galvanized her to think about ways to make the whole building a more attractive and alluring spot for students.
“My favorite undergrad experiences were hanging out in the student union,” King said. “Some of our best moments were just being silly, being in there for three to four hours… having different things happen in the space. I want the same thing for students here.”
From the survey results, King recognized the need for two major changes: The need to create more campus spaces for commuter students and to foster a sense of school pride.
When a student walks into the student union, one can now find a plethora of deep blue colored walls, redolent of the school colors, instead of white ones.
“There’s obviously a lot of blue in the building right now. I’m not going to lie, we got a little carried away with it,” King said with a laugh.
Shortly after SEI and ASR collaborated, Mark Suida, director of Campus Life, approached Student Association with the idea of also turning two vacant club rooms on the second-floor of the Williams Center into another gathering space for students.
Last spring, the Student Association conducted a survey with over 950 students. The study asked students what changes and improvements they would like to see on campus.
Many students said that they would support the creation of a game room, leading to the development of what is now the Blue Devil Den. The den, which is located in room S220 of the union, is equipped with an air hockey table, a ping-pong table, electronics and board games, which were all funded by SA.
“At the same time as (us), the Student Association came up with the idea to do this,” King said. “That project is my favorite because it was 100% the students; it had nothing to do with us. It came from the students really saying ‘this is exactly what I want and this is how I want to interact.’”
SA made the space more inviting and spacious by knocking down the wall between the two rooms. Throughout this semester, King said that the groups hope to add new features to both the lounge and den. From an upcoming bubble water wall installation to soft-seating with interwoven electronic charging stations, the rooms are not fully furnished yet.
“Our goal is to truly make the room(s) feel like a lounge,” King said. “Ideally, as the semester goes on. It’ll hopefully happen sooner than later. We just knew that we had to have something up and running for students by the time the semester started.”
King said that they are looking to introduce more creative programming and events to the lounge space like Karaoke and Open Mic Nights. Through her role, she is striving to overall amplify the voices of students and to improve the campus experience.
“I think that the biggest part of my role is with the advocacy and programming pieces. I ask myself, ‘How can I focus on creating new initiatives or revamp initiatives that are going to be really student driven?’ because listening to students isn’t always what happens,” King said. “… Advocacy and programming development are the two major components of my department.”