Building a Better Campus Experience:

A proposal for a student center at CCNY

March 27, 2023

The Campus Connectors:

Taseen Choudhury
Jaime Perez

David Kirakosian

Ryan Rosario

Introduction

Currently, there is an issue going on at City College. There are too many students, with not enough space on campus for them to hang out. Many resort to going to the library, a place meant to study, to hang out and talk with friends. This can disrupt students who are there to study and want a quiet place to do their work, and leaves the students who just want to hang out with their friends with no area on campus to go to, despite the campus being 35 acres wide. How can we solve this issue within our college? The answer: a student center. A student center is a commonplace for students to go to where they can hang out with friends, socialize, and overall a place to relax and lounge at. We believe that if a student center were to be built at CCNY, student performance, engagement, and socialization within the campus will improve, creating a more enjoyable environment for students.

Through our own research, we found that most students claim that a student center at CCNY would improve the overall experience on campus. We held a survey that asked students various questions about their thoughts on a student center being built on campus, and whether they were in favor of it or not. 100% of the students we surveyed were in favor of a student survey being made at CCNY. Their reasons for wanting a student center being made ranged from student to student. One student claimed that a student center “could be a good place to stay between classes and when I’m waiting for a friend”. Another student’s reason for going to the student center says “To socialize and make CCNY more welcoming and comfortable”, while another says “Hanging out, studying, club meet ups”, among other responses. However, most of the responses shared one common element: socializing, being with friends, and making their time on campus more enjoyable. As one response put it, “ the campus is objectively a boring place”. Aside from the library, a place meant for study, students don’t have a relaxed area to go to for them to be with their friends, and many students believe that having a student center on campus is the best fix for that situation. When asked whether they believed that having a student center would improve their overall performance and experience at CCNY, 100% of the responses said yes, with one student saying that “It would most likely increase student retention”. This is a common notion among the responses, that a student center would increase engagement and enjoyment on campus.

                                                          Figure 1. The answers to our survey question: 

“Would you want to go to an upgraded student center?”

 Figure 2.  The answers to the survey question: 

“CCNY has a lot of land in the south campus. Would you want a student center placed there?”

Figure 3. The answers to our survey question: 

“Would you want club rooms moved to the student center?”

Further studies have also demonstrated that student centers can have a beneficial impact on students. In a paper titled “College Unions, Learning, and Community Building”, it is stated that “Increasingly, higher education leaders recognize the value of campus spaces that are flexible, can enhance collaboration, and provide greater access to technology.” (Rullman & Harrington, 2014) The same paper mentions another study by Jamieson (2003) who asserted that universities “need spaces designed to generate interaction, collaboration, physical movement, and social engagement as primary elements of the student learning experience”. An example of a student center in action improving student performance is at the UCL Cruciform Hub. The building was opened in 2019, and contained a Prayer Room, Meditation Room, ablution facilities, showers, a Student Enquiries Centre incorporating Disability, Mental Health and Wellbeing Support, and IT Helpdesk. The building was made with the idea of accessibility and consideration for all students. The student response to the center was mostly positive, with positive comments highlighting emotions of the center, facilities, and services within the center. (Meunier, 2020) With the benefits of having a student center being established, it is now important to lay out our action plan for this center being built.

Action Plan

In order to start on our student center we need allocated space for it. A lot of CCNY campus is just congested and there is a lot of open land on the south side that no one gets to appreciate. In our survey 80% of the students said that they wanted the new student center to be in the south campus, therefore we want to place the building right past the Aaron Davis and Spitzer building. The building will be called the Beaver’s Beacon. Beaver’s Beacon will be 15,000 square feet and will be a 3 story building, each floor taking up 5,000 square feet. Here we provide concepts for every floor of our new Student Center. Sketches of floors and picked place CCNY campus for building are attached in Appendix A.

First Floor: The first floor is the cafeteria (figure 4). While the North Academic Center building has a cafeteria it gets way too crowded due to it being shared with the highschools next to us. Which forces students to sneak in food into the library which is restricted. The cafeteria allows CCNY students only to eat at peace without struggling to find a table. The student center will be able to provide franchised fast food chains that accommodate everyone. There is also comfortable seating for those who would just like to sit there for small periods of time. 

Figure 4. A layout of the first floor of Beaver’s  Beacon.

Second Floor: The second floor is dedicated to student engagement and productivity (figure 5). Alongside the congested library, the second floor allows students to engage in club affairs, group work and even isolated study. There will be designated rooms clubs can reserve for meetings. While there are many clubs in CCNY there will be regulations on how many times a club can reserve a room. CCNY fails to provide adequate spacing for clubs to actively prosper the student life. Bringing more accessibility which increases student engagement. 

Figure 5. A layout of the second floor of Beaver’s Beacon.

Third Floor: The Third floor’s sole purpose is to provide students entertainment. The very top of the building which provides a plethora of natural sunlight and comfort. It will contain all sorts of activities such as pool tables, video games, lounging, or even just regular socialization. Gaming rooms can be reserved or anyone can just jump in and play. Luxurious and comforting couches alongside massage chairs to relieve stress built up from exams and classwork (figure 6). 

Figure 6. A layout of the third floor of Beaver’s Beacon.

An approximate timeline of how long it would take to finish construction of Beaver’s Beacon is provided below in figure 7. Considering that we live in New York City, construction is likely to take a lot longer, but this is an optimal time frame. Included are the steps taken to construct the building, as well as the estimated amount of time it would take for each step. 

Figure 7. Gantt chart of the estimated construction time of Beaver’s Beacon.

Cost and Benefits

Beaver’s Beacon will be a large project to complete, therefore it is important to clearly lay out the estimated costs of the project to get a budget 

Table 1. Cost chart of constructing Beaver’s Beacon.

Item	Cost in USD
Construction	$5,430,000
Electrical Work	$52,500
HVAC	$67,500
Plumbing	$75,000
Permits	$10,000
Franchises	$2,000,000
Furniture	$250,000
Total:	$6,013,204 (franchises not included)
Total Area:	14811.07 sq ft
Mean per sq ft:	$406.02 (franchises not included)

Although the cost of building this student center may seem high, the benefits it will bring to the students and school itself make up for this. A brand new student center will surely cause incoming students to pay more attention to CCNY and will attract more students to enroll in our school. Thus, the school will receive more tuition from the increased number of enrollments. Additionally, a new student center would increase CCNY’s reputation, and will add to our already gorgeous campus, especially the south campus which has a lot more green space. We have also already established how a student center will benefit students, by increasing productivity, student engagement, and retention. A student campus would also make the time on campus more enjoyable, as there isn’t much to do on campus due to there not being many spaces for students to socialize and hang out. These benefits bring positives to both the students at CCNY, as well as to the school itself, which give justifiable reasons for the building and costs of Beaver’s Beacon.

Our Team: The Campus Connectors:

Taseen: Taseen is a first-year student at The City College of New York majoring in computer science. He graduated from Information and technology high school with a CTE endorsement in Adobe Dreamweaver. Taseen is knowledgeable in C++, Python, HTML/CSS. Taseen plans to branch into software engineering. Hoping to achieve a spot in the FAANG company and starting his own tech company. 

Jaime: Jaime is a current freshman at the City College of New York majoring in computer science. He went to Queens Technical High School, a CTE (career and technical endorsement) school, where he worked with CISCO networking/cybersecurity during his time there. This experience with technology and computer and networking systems is what persuaded him to pursue a major in computer science in college. His time at a CTE high school gave him skills in CISCO networking devices, and cloud-based services, such as multiple AWS services. He got his first job shortly after graduating as a summer camp counselor. This job taught him about responsibilities, reliability, and work ethic in the workforce. In his spare time, he enjoys playing video games and going to the gym. In the future, he hopes to be a software engineer or have a job in the cybersecurity field.

David: David is a transfer student from Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Russia. He’s currently attending the City College of New York and seeking a degree in Computer Engineering major. He wants to get experience in working with FPGA systems and software engineering of OSs. He has built plenty of robots and is skilled in C/C++ embedded programming, so he can handle Microchip, Atmega and STM32 microcontrollers. He has crafted different kinds of pulse transformers and power supplies. He worked with different kinds of current and voltage measurement sensors, created debugging and logging systems for power plants, and also can handle electrical and even plumbing jobs. He has a strong background in engineering project management among electrical engineers.

Ryan: Ryan is a first year at City College, his intended major is computer science. He wants to be a software engineer after college. He likes to play sports and play the saxophone during his free time.

Conclusion

To conclude, we believe that building a student center on the CCNY campus will overall improve student performance, retention, and enjoyment while on campus. Students don’t have anywhere to go to simply relax and be with friends and socialize. Due to this, many resort to going to the NAC library, a place that’s meant for students to study and do work. By having a designated space for students to socialize, we can ensure that the library will remain a place for work and study, decreasing interruptions and increasing work productivity on campus. By placing this student center on the south campus, it will also decrease congestion in the north campus, and encourage people to go to the south campus, which is a beautiful space with lots of green space. Implementing a student center will bring benefits to students and CCNY as a whole, benefits that will be long term. The school will gain more money in tuition from increased enrollments from students who will want to attend a school with a modern student center, and students will find more ways to engage with others and socialize on campus, overall increasing student satisfaction.

References

1. Brenzel, K. (2018, May 16). New York City is the priciest city to build in the world – and it’s not getting any cheaper. Business Insider. Retrieved March 27, 2023, from https://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-city-priciest-city-to-build-in-world-not-getting-cheaper-2018-5 
2. Meunier, B. (2020). Engaging students and academics in creating a new model for research libraries: A reflective case study on the UCL student center. New Review of Academic Librarianship, 26(2-4), 261–274. https://doi.org/10.1080/13614533.2020.1779761
3. Rullman, L. J., & Harrington, K. D. (2014). College unions, learning, and Community Building. New Directions for Student Services, 2014(145), 39–47. https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.20078

Appendix: Student Center Planning.

Part A. Proposed location of Student Center.

Part B. 1st Floor Plan.

Part C. 2nd Floor Plan.

Part D. 3rd Floor Plan.