Game Room construction scheduled to begin this semester
September 2, 2020
It was almost an entire year ago when Student Government voted to have about one-third of the Student Union Game room gutted for Lend-a-Wing space, which received harsh backlash from the UNF student community.
For those unfamiliar with the Lend-a-Wing, it is a service designed to help students receive free food, no questions asked. It was previously located in Hicks Hall.
Many adjustments would be made to the game room to accommodate the space. Mainly the iconic pool and ping-pong tables will be moved to the Boathouse, and the game tournament space will be replaced.
Despite student protest, the project moved forward, with then-president John Aloska aiming to have it constructed between Fall 2019 and Spring 2020. The project was expected to be completed by “early Spring.” However, Spring 2020 came, and nothing changed for the Game Room. Student Government stated that construction had been temporarily delayed, and it was set to begin around Spring Break.
This was a sign of relief to many advocates of the Game Room – However, this soon turned to tragedy for students, as the University announced its plans to go full remote for two weeks following spring break, essentially temporarily shutting down the campus. Things only got worse after that, as the remote instruction was extended until the end of semester, and the entirety of summer as well. As a result, the Game Room, like many aspects of life before the pandemic, looks frozen in time. It still has advertisements up for spring tournaments which never happened, and everything was left where it was before spring break.
Because of the shutdown, construction on the Game Room could not begin. Many students may have been relieved to see the Game Room unchanged, even if it’s still closed off to enforce social distancing.
Spinnaker reached out to Student Government for an update on the Game Room:
“The COVID-19 crisis effectively put all projects on a pause, including the Lend-a-Wing construction,” said SG, “However, the Lend-a-Wing relocation to the Game Room has resumed and is under way. Construction is slated to start this semester.”
It would seem that the Student Government still plans to go through with this. Time will tell if it actually happens, or if it is postponed once more.
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Chris Gauron • Sep 6, 2020 at 2:06 pm
The Pool Tournament has been my favorite event on campus. It has been appropriately placed as the Grand Finale of the Tournaments in the fall quite appropriately. Similarly, the Ping Pong Tournament is the Grand Finale of the Spring Tournaments. Both events will be effectively eliminated with this change.
I have spoken with multiple members of last year’s student government about this issue. One gentleman replied that the game room is “underutilized”. As my go to spot between classes, and one of the very few places students have to beat the heat and hang-out indoors, I can tell you it is not underutilized and, rather, is often too crowded. When and if I am fortunate enough to get an open pool table I usually have to ask people playing cards or board games at the high tops bar tables to get out of their seats to allow me to make a shot from that end – suggest removing them from the window wall as even when nobody is sitting there the tables interfere.
No, this is not a good idea. I am quite pleased that we have a very good Student Body President, Trustee, and first ever student Governor at BOG in Ally Schneider who, I hope, will step in and put the breaks on this. She has been a bright ray of sunshine in her short reign already so I trust she will make the right call on this.
The food bank is a good idea but quite far away from the residence halls where it is most needed for accessibility. In my architectural experience designing for ADA and specializing in student housing projects, I would never consider this an appropriate location for this service and submit that doing so will create undue accessibility hardship to those UNF residents who that service close by.