Bicentennial Student Center
Coming in 2012
Caroline Briggs
Issue date: 4/13/09 Section: News
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According to the Bicentennial Web site, the building will encompass the current locations of Gaskill, Rowan, Robertson and Culler Halls on Spring Street and will improve the amenities of Shriver Center, the current student center since 1957.
Joe Doyle is the Assistant Director of Annual Giving and enthusiastic of the prospect and challenge to Miami's newest construction venture.
"When [Shriver] was built, Miami was a school of 6,000 and women were required to be back in their rooms by ten," Doyle says. "For ten years, student presidents have recognized that the student center is out of date. The new Miami student is a 24-hour person and we need a place that reflects that lifestyle."
According to Doyle, the main architectural focus of the center will be group study areas and space to accommodate the 350 student organizations on campus. Currently, there is only space to house about one fourth of these organizations.
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Valerie Hodge, wife of President David Hodge and ambassador for the university, says that when she first arrived at Miami to meet with students about needs and plans, she was surprised to hear the outcry for study space.
"We were told to go King on any given night and see the wait for a study room there," Hodge says. "Sure enough, we saw that it was a challenge. Trying to turn a library into a student center is not easy, and it remains packed all the time. It was obvious there was a desperate need for change."
Hodge says that while Miami continues to surge ahead of other Ohio state schools with undergraduate programs and research, the university remains sorely behind when it comes to a student center.
Besides study space, plans for the center also include a food court with options like a non-alcoholic Irish pub and a sports lounge with televisions and bar-style food. There has also been a proposal for a windowless, sound-proof meditation room with low lighting where students can go to pray or take quiet time between busy classes. Miami also missed out on bringing any big names to campus during the Ohio-centered 2008 presidential race because no facilities were compatible. A 650-seat auditorium would prevent any future speakers or politicians to pass through southern Ohio without paying a visit to Oxford, according to Doyle.
"(With the pub and the sports lounge) students will understand that you don't need alcohol to have fun," Hodge says. "But right now all the happening places in Oxford happen to all include alcohol. We just took a trip to Atlanta and saw a center that included the Irish pub that was built by the same firm that we will work with, and we were so impressed."
Doyle also says that because the construction date is far-off, the technology included will be state of the art for its time. Study rooms will be equipped to handle the increasingly hi-tech academic and social experience.
The building's construction was pushed back sixteen months because of the school's current financial conditions, but Hodge says the planning committee is not waiting around for state funds to surface.
"The beautiful thing is that the fund raising campaign was developed well before the economy tanked," Hodge says. "It's based mostly on small gifts, what alumni can afford."
The campaign hopes to involve 71,809, roughly half of the living 140,000 Miami alumni, in the giving process of raising the 80 million dollars needed to construct the BSC. Doyle points out that donors can get their name inside the building for a mere $200, a low amount for an important inclusion.
"We want everyone to have the opportunity to participate in this milestone event for Miami," Doyle says. "Even though current students won't be able to use the building directly, they will be able to say that they helped build it and improve the unmatched undergrad experience here at Miami."
Doyle is the head supervisor of the Telehawks, an organization that calls alumni at home about the annual fund and the culture of giving. He says it is the fully engaged alumni that give back who have made Miami the place it is today, with places like the recreational sports center and Goggin Ice Arena. He says the naming of the building will cost $25 million.
Besides talking to alumni about the annual fund and giving to the BSC, the Telehawks have also been calling the bicentennial senior class about the senior legacy campaign. The proposal is asking seniors for $200 to raise $50,000 to dedicate a study room in the BSC to the class of 2009, a fitting installment to the building commemorating their year of commencement.
"Now is a good time to give a little extra back to Miami for a school that has given so much to its alumni," Hodge says. "With the state locking in state tuition for such a tuition-dependent school means that Miamians need to participate in a culture of giving."
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