Cyrus Nuval
Contributing Writer
VCU may not have enough practice, presentation or activity space to accommodate the interests of all of their student organizations, according to members of the Student Government Association. The group plans to submit a proposal to the Board of Visitors to address the lack of space.
According to Reuban Rodriguez, the associate vice provost and an adviser to the Monroe Park SGA, a student representing one of the many student organizations at VCU sought him out to bring the lack of activity space to his attention.
“There are at least thirty, arguably more, student organizations that have specific activities that require a specific type of space for practice and presentation,” Rodriguez said. He went on to say that organizations that required certain specific types of space, such as studio space for dance groups or courts and fields for sports, often aren’t readily available. This isn’t a new phenomenon, he added.
“This has actually been an annual dilemma. Year after year there have been complaints about the lack of space,” Rodriguez said. “Whenever a student approaches me with a proposal, suggestion or complaint, I present the message to the SGA.”
Rodriguez brought the complaint to Tiffany Smith, the vice chairwoman of Monroe Park’s SGA. On Sept. 24, she presented the issue to the SGA Senate. In a report, she compared VCU’s number of student organizations and organization spaces with other universities that are similar to VCU and cited as comparable in the Quest for Distinction program.
According to Smith’s report, VCU has 531 student organizations. The groups have access to seven meeting rooms, a 120,313 square foot Student Commons, three ballrooms and a banquet hall that can seat up to 500 people for events and meetings.
The report compared these figures to the University of South Florida, which has less than 400 student organizations. USF does, however, have a Student Commons that is 230,000 square feet, a ballroom that can seat 650 people, a theater that can seat 700 people and 21 multipurpose rooms that can hold 275 people apiece.
Similarly, the University of Cincinnati has less than 200 student organizations. Their Student Commons is 240,000 square feet, with a 1,500 square foot Senate Hall and 19 meeting spaces and multipurpose rooms.
“We plan on finding inspiration from the style of existing rooms from these other schools in order get ideas and hopefully upgrade or make better and new organization spaces,” Smith said.
Since Smith’s report, SGA chairwoman Katheryn Witt, chairwoman of Long Term Projects, Christina Dang and other SGA Senators on the SGA Long Term Projects Committee have been working together to develop a proposal to submit to VCU’s Five-Year Plan Committee.
“The proposal will re-introduce to the Five-Year Plan the lack of student organization space … (and) contain our ideas about what to do to increase organization space,” said Witt.
Witt, Dang and the Long Term Projects Committee are still developing the proposal, which may not be finished until the spring. The group will be speaking at a university planning meeting to push for inclusion of the issue into the school’s strategic plan and to gather feedback and ideas. CT