<p>Hi I'm new here, so I apologize if I'm posting this in the wrong category, etc, as I'm new to this.</p>
<p>Are any folks around here commuter students (present or past) that go to college where majority of the students are commuters also? I've read threads on CC by commuter students that have posted on the lack of feeling integrated, but at schools where majority of the students live on campus.</p>
<p>So I was wondering about other folks- what has your experience been like? If your campus has student centers, do you frequent them? Do you think student centers that are more mindfully designed would help bring people together and provide a sense of belonging?</p>
<p>Please feel free to answer if you're a commuter regardless of school type and you have strong opinions on student centers!</p>
<p>I'm an architecture grad student in my final year, working on my thesis- which calls attention to student centers for commuter colleges,... a typology I believe needs more attention. I've been dying to reach out to people for their personal opinions, as I do not have any friends that are commuters at commuter colleges... let alone, commuters.</p>
<p>No. People went to class and went home. Nobody liked to hang around. I hung around but was usually by myself. I think if the student center offered something suitably enticing and was well promoted enough on campus then it might help. All we had to offer were video games, pool tables, and food, and a lot of people didnt even know it was there.</p>
<p>ah-ha! Thanks for the reply. I had a hunch this was precisely the problem, but I couldn’t just assume things without asking. I think a lot of student centers are haphazardly built. You can’t just make a building and put things it in to get students to go. It’s got to be more than a box with toys in it.</p>
<p>Was it out of the way? I’ve noticed a lot of successful student centers are usually portals, i.e. some long building you have to walk through in order to get to classes, or maybe in the same area you park your car.</p>
<p>We don’t have one of those gameroom-type student centers, but we do have a cafeteria with long tables and computers along the walls, as well as a small lounge with couches and tables. The cafeteria is definitely used a lot, but not nearly as much as it could be, mostly because a lot of people don’t even know that it exists or where it is. Even more true of the lounge. </p>
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<p>Yes, this. The place where people hang out the most, other than in the cafeteria where there are computers, is the covered area outside the building where there is a sort of long brick bench and a wide sidewalk. People just sort of sit around and talk and/or smoke out there, and on nice days study. So yeah, I agree it should be somewhere convenient. Seems to me like most commuters don’t like to go around searching for stuff.</p>
<p>violinist— Thank you for your feedback. I find it interesting that you say most commuters don’t like to go around searching for stuff, it’s not only commuters, I think all of us are that way nowadays. We’re too plugged in (internet, haha, look at me).</p>
<p>Now, a totally ridiculous question- but bear with me and try to imagine this. What’s your opinion of a student center built out of moving parts? For example, a wall that morphs its shape or a floor that shifts its height. Odd I know, since we’re so accustomed to stationary buildings, but I think it might be helpful… Something that’s unpredictable might catch people’s attention. Plus, I assume that a lot of college kids nowadays belong to some social networking website (i.e. facebook, twitter, etc). So imagine if the building transformed itself depending on what people were writing about. It’s be less building, more machine I suppose.</p>
<p>rsala— It’s funny how table shape can make a huge difference… I wonder what they were thinking with the long style tables.</p>
<p>“Was it out of the way? I’ve noticed a lot of successful student centers are usually portals, i.e. some long building you have to walk through in order to get to classes, or maybe in the same area you park your car.”</p>
<p>Ours was in the basement of the cafeteria nobody knew was there. It probably should have been placed in a building that had classrooms in it so people would HAVE to walk by it, or maybe connect it to the library or something. There were at least four buildings in my campus I’d never set foot in, I only found the student center because a friend showed me the cafeteria and I noticed a flier there for club meetings in the basement.</p>
<p>In my student center I feel like theres this “out of it” crowd that frequents there and thats about it. Also there are a lot of people who creepily just go to the student center who don’t even attend the school. You will sometimes find a student or 2 who just crash there for a half hour to read or use a computer but they are out of there ASAP. I feel most people don’t bother going to the student center because of that creepy crowd that hangs out in there. I try not to judge, but they make swords out of tin foil and hit each other with them. Need I say more?</p>
<p>I think we have a student center, but I never really go there. I usually just hang out in the places where math students congregate (like people’s offices, or the tutoring lab). It takes some work to find those places, but I think it would be a lot more awkward to go to the student center because you don’t really have anything in common with the people who go there.</p>
<p>“In my student center I feel like theres this “out of it” crowd that frequents there and thats about it. Also there are a lot of people who creepily just go to the student center who don’t even attend the school. You will sometimes find a student or 2 who just crash there for a half hour to read or use a computer but they are out of there ASAP. I feel most people don’t bother going to the student center because of that creepy crowd that hangs out in there. I try not to judge, but they make swords out of tin foil and hit each other with them. Need I say more?”</p>
<p>Yeah, that sounds like my student center, too. XD</p>
<p>twisted— that’s a crime. no student center should ever be in a basement. sounds haphazard and last minute… which makes me upset. these things really matter!</p>
<p>future— Tin foil swords? Fighting? I think the technical word for that is boffing… don’t ask me why I know This student center, how would you describe it as a building? Was it it’s own building? Small? Large? Dark?</p>
<p>^_^ — Hmm, interesting point, but do you think other people feel the same way about not having anything in common?</p>
<p>Folks— these replies are very interesting, thank you. Please keep them coming! Most of them I would never suspect, especially with the “out of it” crowd. I went to a small liberal arts college where we had a cute little student center where people could check their mail, grab a bite to eat, sit in a comfy room with a fireplace. So as you can see, my opinion of student centers is completely warped.</p>
<p>Also, where are these colleges you guys speak of? I might be able to look into them and do some research… </p>
<p>Thanks again. This has been really helpful.</p>
<p>well, with people in your department you tend to have a lot in common, like a lot of times you’re in the same classes and can work on homework together, or at least you’re in the same age group (it’s kind of weird if you’re a grad student and hang out with a bunch of undergrads). plus it’s smaller so you tend to see the same people every time and you can get to know them. going to a student center feels like walking down a busy street. and it would be kind of weird to start up a conversation with a random person because a lot of times they come in groups. or they’re there for a particular reason, not just to vegetate. but i wouldn’t really know since i don’t hang out there enough. maybe if i became one of the “regulars” there’d be a difference.</p>
<p>i bet it depends a lot on the size and general atmosphere of your school.</p>
<p>My school, while not a CC, does not have a quality student center. We technically have one, but it is almost all offices and a small food court and people do not really hang out there (although this is gradually changing). It recently went under renovations this past summers and the most noticeable change was a very underutilized/depressing part that they transformed from a sketchy coffee place into a full restaurant/sports pub place. They have all sorts of food and drink specials and it is really being used by everyone! They also do trivia nights, open mic nights, and other sorts of things in that vein. It also has a nice patio that is great to sit on during a nice day/evening. </p>
<p>I wish my LAC had a fireplace/comfy couch type of area, I would really like that to study in, with perhaps a cafe for coffee and whatnot. </p>
<p>I think the key is to make it unique and cozy, and not have such an “institutional” feel of a public high school. </p>
<p>I also agree that with the right amount of promotion through facebook, twitter, etc. that would certainly help. </p>
<p>Geographically, obviously a central proximity would be great.</p>
<p>Best of luck, I think this is a really great topic to be examining, because Community Colleges deserve much more emphasis in our country, because they are very important to developing people and communities (as cliche as that sounds, its true).</p>
<p>Like the post above mine stressed, it should have a sense of coziness. </p>
<p>The commuter college I attended for a summer had a really empty cafeteria feeling sort of student center. It was in a sense a “cafeteria” since there was a small food corner but that feeling shouldn’t envelop the whole student center! </p>
<p>There were other doors that lead to rooms like the school bookstore where they had all your books, it was lightly decorated but still way better than what was on the other side of the wall. There was also a game room with a pool table and some Foosball tables, the walls were depressing but there were occasionally people playing in it. The other room was the lounge and all it had in there was a medium sized tv and some knocked over chairs? (I don’t know). Most of the time it was dark and closed.</p>
<p>I sat there after my only class so I could force myself to study, I rarely saw anyone else do anything there but eat, visit the bookstore or the game room. There really was no purpose to gather there as there weren’t any programs or anything of the sort.</p>
This student center, how would you describe it as a building? Was it it’s own building? Small? Large? Dark?</p>