SGA designates room for stranded student groups

As of last night's grand opening, student groups without permanent headquarters on the campus have access to a resource room in the Student Involvement Suite of Stamp Student Union.

The push for an all-purpose room for university organizations — a Student Government Association objective for years — finally came to fruition after long-term negotiations with the student union.

Last year, the room was a cluttered storage space for student groups cleaning out their offices. SGA members fixed it up to help student groups with planning and organizational needs.

"Student groups provide a lot of the culture on this campus, and they provide a lot of diverse programming," SGA Chief of Staff Sumia Ahmad said. "[This room is] facilitating that strong community that student groups provide within the university. It's giving student groups a necessary infrastructure to have a place to meet and have a place they can call their home."

The room has two computers outfitted with programs like Adobe Photoshop and InDesign that are networked to a printer and the Internet, as well as a phone and pamphlets of various kinds of information — such as how to reserve a room in Stamp — among other resources.

Director of Student Groups Kaiyi Xie, a sophomore bioengineering and mathmatics major, agreed that this was a way for student groups to "have a centralized space to go to."

"We thought it would be best if all student groups had a place inside the Stamp because that's where business happens," Xie said. "Student groups are relatively decentralized.

And while that's great because it allows them to showcase their individuality, we thought it would be easier if they don't have to run all over the place. It's a hub for information, which we really need."

The last night's grand opening illustrated the need for a meeting place available to anyone, as members of organizations, in attendance, ranging from the German Club to the Taiwanese American Student Association to MaryPIRG, all said the new room would be a great help in planning activities and collaborating with other students.

"We'll definitely be using this room," said MaryPIRG President Brian Burrell said. "Our office is in the South Campus Dining Hall. It's so far away from the rest of student life. It'll be really nice to have this place to connect to other student groups and have resources here. It's so much more convenient and more efficient."

Members of new student groups said they were eager to use the new space to help them generate publicity.

"Since we're a new organization, it's really going to come in handy," said Liz Capowski, vice president of Public Health Engaging and Representing. "We really want to get more people involved, get them coming to our events. Now we can come in here and have a nice place to get the job done."

Emerging groups that don't yet have headquarters in the Student Involvement Suite were the initial reason for the creation of a room available to everyone, according to Steve Gnadt, associate director of the student union.

"Too many student groups ask for space that we don't have for them," Gnadt said. "This is the student union — we want student groups here, that's what the building is for. This is what we should be doing always."

openchowski at umdbk dot com