Student center gets summer facelift
The sweatshirt-wearing mannikins in the window of the Bookstore aren’t the only new additions to the Student Center. Overhauls of the Bookstore and Sammy’s Cafe top the list of summer changes to the Student Center.
Bookstore renovations, funded mostly by Barnes and Noble, began after commencement and ended in early August. The store added a window to the exterior wall facing Laboratory Road, and administrative offices moved to the store’s basement.
Bookstore Manager Helen Williams said the renovations create a more friendly, professional atmosphere and are the best changes in ten years.
“It’s a cleaner look, a more Rice look,” Williams said.
Four cash registers were installed in the basement of the store, which will allow textbooks to be purchased more quickly, Housing and Dining Director Mark Ditman said. People will also be able to enter and exit the store in the basement.
Student Center Director Boyd Beckwith said extra space will let families visit the Bookstore during orientations more easily.
“In the past, it’s always been horrendous to pack all the parents in there at once,” Beckwith said. “Now I think it’ll be a little bit better because there’s a lot more room to walk around. It looks a lot more befitting to a school like Rice than the previous space did.”
Rice paid for several renovations that had not been initially planned. Ditman and Williams declined to comment on the total cost of the renovation.
The first renovation to Sammy’s Cafe since the late 1990s began after commencement and ended Aug. 1. Renovations included new flooring, brighter lighting and fresh paint.
Beckwith said Sammy’s service will expand in the fall to include dinner and more food options.
Ditman said retained earnings from Thirteenth Street and Sammy’s funded the renovations.
With the move of Career Services and the Office of Alumni Affairs from the second floor of the Student Center to the O’Connor House, several other offices will take their place.
The Community Involvement Center and the Center for Civic Engagement will move into Career Services’ old space by the end of the fall semester, Beckwith said.
The Student Center’s administrative offices will move into Alumni Affairs’ old office, making room for a 24-hour graduate student lounge in the basement of the Student Center.
Other Student Center changes include the re-upholstering of the furniture outside Willy’s Pub and the addition of a ping-pong table and a foosball table to the Pub.
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