Group Seeks Student Center

The Committee on College Life yesterday voted to recognize the newly-formed Students Concerned for a Student Center (SCSC), members of the two-month-old organization said.

The recognition by the committee of students, faculty and administrators concludes a brief period of wrangling over the status of the group, which was formed in October to coordinate undergraduate efforts for a student center. Administrators originally suggested that the Undergraduate Council assume SCSC's intended role, but the group wanted to maintain independent status.

"The issue of a student center has really been a political football," said Jeffrey C. Yang '89, SCSC co-founder. "We thought there needed to be a group which would deal specifically with this problem."

The council has welcomed the new group, said Dana M. Bush '91, who chairs the residential committee of the council. "My committee feels that Students Concerned for a Student Center has done valuable research. We would like to work as closely as possible with them. We want to represent a united front to the administration," Bush said.

The Council recently approved an SCSC report which is intended to give a distilled version of several student groups' views on a new student center.

The group's organizers have said that the lack of undergraduate meeting places and space for campus organizations show the need for a student center.

Yang said that SCSC has met all fall with campus organizations to discover what students want in a center.

Student offices and a coffeehouse or grill with a performance area are the facilities most in demand, said Jeffrey A. Camp '89, who founded SCSC with Yang. Other SCSC "wish list" items include lounges, a dance studio, stage and central information center, Camp said.

SCSC has also suggested locations for a new center. "We would like a separate facility" instead of Memorial Hall, said SCSC member Elaine Lum '92. Mem Hall is undergoing a University-commissioned feasibility study for conversion into a student center.

"The problem is that there's not much space in the basement [of Mem Hall]," Lum said. "There's already talk about changing the Freshman Union into offices. There's not enough meeting rooms already. If those are taken what will we have left?" said Lum.

Lum said that SCSC has proposed the University squash courts, Lowell Lecture Hall and the area of the Gulf station as alternative locations for the center.