Author: Ben DeLuca, Lauren Siverly
Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Student Life Tamara Rice announced plans to renovate Johnson Student Center (JSC) at a town hall meeting last Monday. The current design entails a complete remodel of the interior of the JSC to create office space for student life organizations such as the Office of Student Life (OSL), the Career Development Center (CDC) and the Office of Civic Engagement. Student media organizations, like CatAlist, the Occidental Weekly, The Occidental Agency (TOA) and La Encina yearbook will move into a reconfigured space in Newcomb, occupying what is now a common room. The project is aimed at increasing student activity within the JSC.
“In terms of relationships, what we were saying is that student leadership, student involvement, civic engagement and global citizenship, your vocation and what you want to do after college, and multicultural competence all go hand-in-hand at Occidental so we’re all physically located near each other,” Rice said.
Satellite offices for both the Intercultural Community Center (ICC), currently located off-campus, and the CDC, currently located in the administrative building, will be moved into the Johnson Student Center. With the move into the student center, the hope is that both of these offices will gain more visibility on campus and that students will take greater advantage of the resources they have available to them.
“I think students don’t necessarily associate the administration building with an office that can really help them and that they only use the CDC is when they’re in a panic during their final semester here” Rice said.
The newly-formed Office of Civic Engagement, an initiative spearheaded by President Veitch and Assistant Dean of Civic Engagement Ella Turenne this past year, will also be located in the new student center. By giving the Office of Civic Engagement a centralized location, the hope is that students will utilize the office to actively seek out community service opportunities.
“Public service, civic engagement, global citizenship are all part of the Oxy education and something that we think that every graduate should have experience in,” Rice said.
The renovated JSC will also include conference rooms equipped with projectors that will be available to students 24/7 via card access, an information center to advertise events at Occidental and in Los Angeles, and updates to the Bengal Room, which currently houses TOA, La Encina and The Bengal Bus.
Rice expressed a desire to hear students’ opinions on what the Bengal Room should become. Proposals have so far ranged from a black-box theater to a pub, but her office is still seeking input and ideas.
Although the plans for the Johnson Student Center continue to be developed, finalization of the design and commencement of construction is contingent on a grant the school is hoping to receive from the Rose Hills Foundation.
“If the Foundation passes on this fabulous opportunity, we don’t know when the renovations would take place,” Director of Communications Jim Tranquada said. Since the the Newcomb Media Suite funded by alumni, it will be built regardless of the grant.
The suite will house a central meeting area connected to four offices, a conference room and a kitchen. KOXY will remain in the Student Center due to the expense involved with building another soundproof room on campus.
Those in charge of the Newcomb Media Suite project hope to begin construction this month. The construction will not affect current freshmen living in the dorm, and incoming freshmen will arrive to a fully constructed Media Suite.
“I support this but only in the sense that they should have a plan for the other common room,” Graduate Hall Coordinator in Newcomb Katie Mueller said. Mueller will be living in Newcomb again next fall and noted that there should be a plan to maximize the effectiveness of Newcomb’s remaining common room.
For Head of Production at CatAList Raffy Cortina, the renovations could not have come at a better time.
“Right now we’re in a converted viewing room in the library. We have been working to find a better place and [Rice’s] proposal was a blessing to some extent,” Cortina said.
As an organization that is only a year old, CatAList has struggled to find a place of its own on campus.
“For the last six months, we have been getting so much support from everyone, but we have also been going through a lot of stress trying to gain financial support for equipment and a space,” Cortina said.
The funding, if received, from the Rose Hills foundation and alumni grants will help to provide the latest technologies for the new media organizations on campus such as CatAList, La Encina, The Occidental Weekly and TOA.
Cortina also thinks that the move of these organizations into a first-year dorm could have some beneficial results.
“I think that having us in a freshman dorm will help new students who are looking for a niche or something to do on campus see their options. It also almost forces the upperclassmen to interact with the underclassmen. I think we’ll see more gelling between the students,” Cortina said.
However, Cortina does point out that the location of the suite may have some downsides. “In speaking with President Veitch’s team, we have been raising some concerns about security.” College students tend to have a reputation of being a bit destructive, particularly on the weekends, so the location of this new media suite may not be completely ideal. However, it has its merits, such as being on lower campus and allowing incoming first-years to see all the media they have at their disposal.
“There are some trade-offs obviously, but we feel like it’s a win-win. We want the JSC to be used all the time… Before we didn’t have a student nucleus, so to speak, the centralized place of student action and student services, offices that really cater to student needs outside of the classroom,” Rice said.
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