<p>The College of the University of Chicago has long been seen as the red-haired child within the University at large. It reached a low point in the 1980s when something like 500-600 or so kids were graduating (in 4 years) out of an incoming class of 800. Many students resented the feeling, accurate or not, of being neglected as second class citizens compared to the graduate schools on campus.</p>
<p>As many of you know, several years ago the UChicago board made a decision to rebuild the college to its former world class standards and this involved expanding the student body as well as building up the plant facilities of the University.</p>
<p>As people here have seen, the expansion of the student body is an on-going project that has already begun to pay dividends to the quality of life on campus. Perhaps less apparent though, has been the effort to upgrade the physical infrastructure of the College. The relatively recent additions to the College of the Ratner athletic center, South Campus dorm and Max Palevsky all indicate a not insignificant shift by the University to improve the undergraduate experience.</p>
<p>But perhaps the single most important addition to quality of life on campus will be the opening of the Logan Center of the Arts. Finally, UChicago will have a central, world class facility for students to collaborate, create and study fine and practical arts. There has never been an integrated approach to the arts at UChicago and this new center will contribute vastly to both the undergraduate experience as well as surrounding community.</p>
<p>For a school that has so long confined itself to the study of theory in the arts, this shift is momentous and long overdue. I can't wait to see it in real life and envy the incoming students for their increased options!</p>
<p>Those rooms no longer exist (and the barber shop down in RC is only a small room now). Mostly office spaces. Most things were moved over to Gates Blake (and now the LAC). Things are looking up for the arts at UChicago!</p>
<p>So I guess the College Mailroom is gone from the Reynold’s Club basement, too? Does that even exist any more or is everything just electronic now?</p>
<p>Just so you don’t think I pre-date U.S. Mail, we did get our personal mail in the dorms back in the day. But the University junk mail (including bills and grades) went to the College Mailroom, beside the music rooms in RC basement. (But Goodbye and Good Riddance! It wasn’t a central part of my College experience picking up the mail there.)</p>
<p>Did Reynolds Club finally become a full-fledged student union? It was a quasi one in days of yore. Or maybe the Bartlett Dining Commons serves that function as well? (Of course, we had the A Level cafe in the Reg, which was UChicago’s version of a student union.)</p>
<p>RC definitely serves the purpose as all of ORCSA is housed there which oversees student organizations. But things have grown so much that you find students having meetings and study breaks everywhere.</p>
<p>The dining halls definitely are a center of life (as well as the libraries though the A level is going through a transformation right now meaning the reg first floor is now the A level kind of).</p>