By Alex Sorrells / The Jambar
Student employees and organizations were invited to a forum Sept. 5 to discuss the details of the new student center.
The discussion covered several topics such as the locations of student activities, temporary relocation of student services and the additions coming to Kilcawley.
Joy Polkabla Byers, associate vice president of Student Experience, described the layout of the new center.
“Our staffing areas that oversee Kilcawley are kind of scattered in different spaces, so they’re going to have one shared main office and then one front desk,” Polkabla Byers said. “So where we have them, things are more efficient use for students and staff and being able to communicate more efficiently and having all those resources in one place.”
Along with student and staff offices, food options will also be placed in one open area. Jordan Pintar, president of Student Government Association, describes the layout of the new food court.
“We’re going to have a food court — super excited about that. It’ll keep all of them in one space, provide a really large eating area, and then additionally, in the food court, they are going to have a little maker’s kitchen. Any students who might want to have an event centralized around that, cooking classes, anything like that, are going to be able to do that in that food court,” Pintar said.
Construction will be completed in five phases:
Phase one: summer 2025
Phase two: school year 2025–26
Phase three: summer 2026
Phase four: school year 2026–27
Phase five: summer 2027
The final phase is scheduled to be complete by fall 2027. Polkabla Byers explained how this plan will be executed.
“Nothing is happening at the Rec Center and nothing is happening to Kilcawley house, so it would be that area in between… So where The Cove and Student Activities are right now, will probably be one of the last things touched,” Polkabla Byers said. “That middle section will be where a majority of the work will take place in that first year, and after the summer of the first year, we will go into the Chestnut Room and into Chick-fil-A and that area.”
Ongoing construction has led many staff and student offices to temporarily relocate to other buildings on campus. Polkabla Byers covered the current relocation plan.
“The main plan is that most of the offices, the card office, graphic services, student activities, the staff in Kilcawley, we are looking at the Silvestri Hall basement area,” said Polkabla Byers. “We also have block-booked some spaces throughout campus. If you were a student organization or you’re a department that wanted to reserve a space, we have four to five different spaces that will be kind of our new Kilcawley satellite concept for the next two and a half years.”
With many changes happening at once, Pintar explained that SGA will be there for those who need help navigating.
“A lot of student [organizations] rely on Kilcawley to have their meetings in, and the student government will be here guiding students so that they know there are other buildings you can book your meetings,” said Pintar.
Two large meeting spaces are also included in the renovation plans.
“Two really big things that I’m excited about is going to be the ballroom and the black box. It’ll just be new open spaces where you can have large gathering events,” Pintar said. “I feel like the Chestnut room is really the only place that we can do that now, but with those two spaces being added and updated, it will provide a really great face-lift, a lot more open space and larger seating.”
The black box will be an open area designated for late-night meetings, studying or activities. Polkabla Byers explains the plan with that space.
“There is a black box theater that’s going to be in [there] that holds about 100-120 students, but it opens into the food court and so there will be an area that we don’t have to have the entire building open, but just the section of it that will allow us for late-night,” Polkabla Byers said.
Three open forums will take place Oct. 3. Students can register for a session on ysu.campusgroups.com until Oct. 1 to learn more about the new student center.