It’s clear that while students were out of town during the Covid emergency, the University of Massachusetts screwed up badly with the Student Union renovation.
We now have a gaudy showpiece instead of a functional building for student activities.
Not every Registered Student Organization requires an office. For many, applying to reserve a meeting room for a weekly meeting of limited duration is all they need. But for others a physical space is vital. I believe there had been upward of 15 offices used by RSOs before the renovation, many shared among multiple groups. These offices were a vital center of engagement and education for decades, in one case for 57 years. The offices were an all-day drop-in spot for students to study, see friends and discuss matters related to the mission of the group, whether literature or politics. Outcasts or people who had been marginalized could find solidarity and support. Many RSOs are involved in large-scale, ongoing social or policy projects that require unpredictable hours, days or weeks. These long-lasting centers provided a rich environment for growth and had been life changing for more than a few students.
UMass decided to eliminate such spaces, and now groups ranging from those of religious minorities to human rights and social activist organizations, have all been made homeless.
A dearth of office space was a perennial problem in the Student Union building. This renovation was an opportunity to fix that. Now, that opportunity has been lost.
UMass is following the lead of other colleges in the drive for ever greater excess. Everyone wants buildings with soaring atriums and vast open spaces, better suited for a casino. It strikes me as aesthetic overkill. Such profligate excess is, of course, not unrelated to the long-term burden of student debt.
I recall my college days as a time of intellectual stimulation and social fun. It was almost magical. That being said, it was still a lot closer to a monastery than to a resort.
In this age of conspiracy theories, many imagine that any powerful authority is always a master of strategy and would only cause grievance and provoke discontent as a means to furthering some sinister plan. Personally, I see this not at all as a deliberate provocation. It’s merely an edict by out-of-touch bureaucrats, who see the whole matter as inconsequential.
It’s the University administration that bears responsibility for this fiasco, and it is their responsibility to remedy it by finding office space elsewhere, and it is up to students to work together to hold their feet to the fire.
Terry Franklin
Marissa Calf • Sep 21, 2021 at 11:03 am
All building projects at UMass are potentially shady and shameful. There are pools of taxpayer money, there are opportunities for political influence. It wasn’t that long ago that UMass chose Whitey Bulger’s brother as president.
Look at the way they tore down Worcester Dining Hall, just to rebuild it (slightly glitzier) one hundred feet away. Talk about getting paid to dig holes only to fill them in again!
Thomas Devine • Sep 14, 2021 at 8:43 pm
The building looks better than it used to, but the new design is functionally impractical. The loss of the ballroom and the Cape Cod lounge is very unfortunate. A lot of really good events were held in those spaces, and it isn’t clear where they can be held now. The designers devoted too much effort into how the place looks and not enough effort determining how the space will be used.
Michael Whitehouse • Sep 13, 2021 at 10:27 pm
When I was a student, much of my time was spent on those offices. Twenty years later, I can say with confidence that I learned more of lasting value in RSO offices than I ever learned in the classroom. Shame on the administration for what they have done. Shame.
Peter Wilkins • Sep 13, 2021 at 9:53 pm
Indeed, the entire thing was a vanity job and power grab by Admin and those responsible should be required to pay the costs of re-remodeling to suit student needs(or at the very least fired).
Spencer • Sep 13, 2021 at 7:34 pm
I agree with this opinion piece. Thank you for writing. No other way to put it, our club feels robbed. We used to have an office space we used for prayer and for storing our equipment. While we had high hopes 3 years ago to get an office in the Student Union rather than Bartlett to serve the same purpose, instead our storage was shoved into the pits of hell in the Bartlett basement and now we have no access to it, since they won’t even give us a key to our storage. They quite literally stole our equipment. And the space we used to have for prayer – we now have to move onto zoom because we don’t have a consistent place to meet. It is infuriating.
Suzanne Palmer • Sep 13, 2021 at 7:31 pm
Yes, and many of us alumni are aware and displeased with the catastrophic destruction of student communities that resulted in the loss of RSO space. Form letter replies of zero substance from the Chancellor’s office have not improved the situation.
Liam Bannon • Sep 13, 2021 at 11:39 am
Several clubs were forced out of office space in the campus center as well. Those rooms are still there, likely unused, while those clubs are homeless because of an aesthetics-first design policy.