By Shanleigh Brosseau, Editor-in-Chief  

Eric Chappell, President of the Students’ General Association (SGA) offered Lambda an inside tour of the Student Centre that is now set to be opened on October 28th, 2019.

“From a construction perspective, we are slightly behind schedule,” Chappell said. The Student Centre was originally expected to be completed this September, and will now be opening its doors at the end of October.

The space overlooking the atrium will be open to the public, but students will need an SGA access card to visit the access space. Non-SGA members can buy access to the student centre for $200.

The space will host SGA services including the V-Desk, executive offices, and the dental hygiene office. Chappell says the centre will not provide spaces for student groups.

“There was never enough of a budget [in the last six years] to have spaces for those groups in the Student Centre,” Chappell said.

“In the initial conversation, it came up as an idea but the university is prepared to provide space for those groups at this point in time, so why would we ask students to pay for space that they’re getting for free?”

Chappell added that there will be a clubs’ room with lockers to provide storage, as well as a meeting room.

SGA members or those who pay for the access card can look forward to a games room, study rooms, as well as the Voyageur’s Café kiosk- a place for students to grab a coffee between classes from.

There will also be pop-up shops on campus that will host a variety of vendors.

“We don’t know all of the vendors at this point,” Chappell said. “We’re working at talking to different vendors with the hope of doing temporary things, and then maybe during exams we open up that space to be extra student space on campus.”

According to surveys done by the SGA, Chappell says students want more food options on campus, which he says the SGA now has the potential to provide.

“There was a big push for having food service options that weren’t managed by Laurentian’s food services,” he said.

“An idea that keeps coming up is everyone wants a Booster Juice on campus. There are some logistical issues, but we are open to any ideas or companies that want to work with us.”

Chappell says the study spaces in the Student Centre will be smaller than those in the Parker Building.

“We are taking into consideration the issue with the [Parker Building study spaces] where you have a space that could have twenty people, and you have two students in it,” he said. “That was actually one of our decisions on having smaller study rooms because we feel people will not monopolize it.”

An additional study room will offer a green screen for students to use. “We’re calling this the projects room,” said Chappell. “So, people who are in media programs or who need to do a video presentation can come and use this space, and have a green screen on campus.”

Chappell says the idea behind the furniture style is to give the space a “feels like home vibe” that will feature leather couches and a fireplace, as well as more modern furniture in the games space. The games area will also include a pool table and a foosball table.

“Generally, we wanted a space that feels like home or feels like you are relaxing in your living room on campus, but students can come hang out,” he said.