The Dean of Students Office announced Monday that construction on the third floor of the George Sherman Union is almost complete. The third floor contains meeting rooms that are used for study and outside conferences. Everything except the skeleton of the walls has been completely torn down.
Katherine Cornetta, assistant to the dean, said the work should be completed by March 15. She said the renovations include remaking all of the conference rooms, changing the material of the walls and completely rewiring the electrical components.
“My favorite part of the whole project is those conference rooms are actually getting the ability to have actual modern meetings in them,” Cornetta said. “Therefore, they’re getting technology and projectors and all of that stuff.”
Cornetta said the work was long overdue.
“The student organizations and the internal departments and the outside conferences were all unhappy that [the rooms] were very 1980s — very outdated conference rooms,” Cornetta said. “To keep all continuances happy, it was time for it to be redone.”
Cornetta said the rooms will be more user-friendly and beneficial for students, who they encourage to use these rooms during finals.
“Sometimes, if they’re not being used for student organizations or departments, we keep them for study,” Cornetta said. “Especially during finals period, we try not to have them reserved so students can go in there for group study.”
BU spokesperson Colin Riley said all that’s left is some cosmetic work.
“The most important thing is it’s a vast improvement,” Riley said. “It’ll be a real update for the needs of the student organizations that use those rooms … in the quality of the rooms and the media, the projectors and the screens they would need in there.”
Riley said the rooms were so outdated they no longer fit the needs of the students.
“The university invests significantly every year, particularly in the summer … so that projects are able to get done,” Riley said. “This project is something that they’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
Riley said the rooms will also include updated technology that will allow students to show presentations on built-in screens. He said he is hopeful that students will like the result and although it is disruptive, like all construction, it will be worth it.
“It’s a great investment,” he said. “It will be there for the years to come. Of course, as new technology comes on we’ll be able to update that. At some time down the line, we’ll upgrade it again.”
Many students said they are excited to use this new space.
Emma Lauder, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she likes to try new study spaces and she has never been up there before.
“It’s always nice to be in a new study space,” Lauder said. “Especially if there’s better lighting and stuff.”
Erin Myers, a sophomore in CAS, said she thinks just having more space at the GSU will be helpful.
“I think it will be beneficial because as a whole, GSU is always super crowded,” Myers said. “I feel like it’s harder to find a quiet space around [GSU] sometimes, depending on how many people are there and how crowded it is. Especially if it looks nice and it’s renovated and it’s a nice space to study.”
Ashley Heesch, a sophomore in the College of General Studies, said she didn’t previously know about the study spaces, but she thinks the technology will be a great addition for people who are visual learners like herself.
“I’ve never been up there but I feel like the whole technology thing is really booming right now,” Heesch said. “I didn’t know about it, so I’m definitely going to go up there and use it.
