Lounge in basement costly, quiet
Renovations run a large bill for new commuter student lounge.
Julia Harrer
Issue date: 10/20/09 Section: News
Students may travel miles to get to Hamline from their homes each day, but only some have been making the journey downstairs into the Commuter Connections lounge.
Over the summer, $160,000 was spent on revamping the former HUB space into a new commuter Ccenter. The changes were part of a larger project focused on bettering facilities on campus, Associate Vice President for Facilities Services Lowell Bromander said.
Bromander said at the beginning of the renovations they planned to spend $41,000 exclusively on the commuter center. But in the process of construction they redid the entire basement which pushed costs past the original estimates.
In addition to repurposing the space, facilities service also added new furniture, carpet and a television.
The space also now houses the office of the Director of Orientation and First-year Programs Marc Skjervem.
Skjervem said the changes have been positive for the space and more students were utilizing the area.
"It became a much more enjoyable place," Skjervem said. "The changes make the whole space work together so much better."
According to Skjervem, the commuter center lounge can still be booked for events and he considers that an advantage to the new space.
Junior Melissa Dahlmann is a commuter who lives two miles from campus. Since walking home takes her half an hour, Dahlmann uses the commuter center to fill gaps of time between classes.
"Mostly it is a quiet place," she said. "People can do their homework with little distraction since there's no music downstairs."
Dahlmann said she was glad to have a dedicated space but said the center lacked commuter-specific events. Since it is sometimes hard to meet other students, Dahlmann said she wished there were more public events where everyone-commuters and otherwise-to connect.
First-year Andrea Avery commutes by bus from Minneapolis and said she spends a lot of time in the new lounge, but wishes it had better computer access.
Over the summer, $160,000 was spent on revamping the former HUB space into a new commuter Ccenter. The changes were part of a larger project focused on bettering facilities on campus, Associate Vice President for Facilities Services Lowell Bromander said.
Bromander said at the beginning of the renovations they planned to spend $41,000 exclusively on the commuter center. But in the process of construction they redid the entire basement which pushed costs past the original estimates.
In addition to repurposing the space, facilities service also added new furniture, carpet and a television.
The space also now houses the office of the Director of Orientation and First-year Programs Marc Skjervem.
Skjervem said the changes have been positive for the space and more students were utilizing the area.
"It became a much more enjoyable place," Skjervem said. "The changes make the whole space work together so much better."
According to Skjervem, the commuter center lounge can still be booked for events and he considers that an advantage to the new space.
Junior Melissa Dahlmann is a commuter who lives two miles from campus. Since walking home takes her half an hour, Dahlmann uses the commuter center to fill gaps of time between classes.
"Mostly it is a quiet place," she said. "People can do their homework with little distraction since there's no music downstairs."
Dahlmann said she was glad to have a dedicated space but said the center lacked commuter-specific events. Since it is sometimes hard to meet other students, Dahlmann said she wished there were more public events where everyone-commuters and otherwise-to connect.
First-year Andrea Avery commutes by bus from Minneapolis and said she spends a lot of time in the new lounge, but wishes it had better computer access.
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