Hitting the books in the basement!

With Finals Week "just around the corner," the Dickinson Complex Community Council helped us to plan for re-furbished study areas in the underutilized Dickinson Complex basements. Using their input, we are setting up a Quiet Study Lounge theme and a Group Study Lounge theme in each of the two shared basements so students can either work on their studying alone or in collaborate with a group. Characteristics of the Group Study Area will be a large 4 foot by 6 foot white board, sofas and other soft seating arrangements, and tables. The Quiet Study areas will have all study carrells and will emphasize studying alone. All the areas are being upgraded so that they have wall to wall carpeting, new Mecho shades on the windows, and new and brighter lighting. Signage now identifies the difference between the two areas. Hopefully this collaboration between Facilities and the Dickinson Student Government Group, will result in higher satisfaction and greater use of the areas.

Earth Day - Do Your Part When The Time Comes!

On Earth Day it is important to make plans for how you are going to "Get Out Green," when the time comes for move out in late May. We are here to help, by continuing a program that we started last year to encourage students to recycle, rather than pitch out old room carpets. This year we are making plans to take our test program campus wide, by providing a spot for every residence hall student to leave the carpets so they can be picked up and recycled. Since the process of recycling still takes energy to round up and re-manufacture the old carpets into something new, the best course of action is to re-use your carpet or take it with you to use in another location. Look for the "Get Out Green" posters that will be coming to a residence hall near you in the coming weeks to participate in our efforts to keep the carpets from going to the landfill! In the photo, the carpets from our pilot program in Independence and Thomas McKean Halls are headed for the recycling bin.

Dry Erase Board, Part II

An earlier post talked about a paint that created a dry erase surface that we tried up at the first floor study lounge in Thomas McKean. Residents of Harrington Complex have also been asking for an option in a study area to collaborate with a dry erase board and Sherwin Willliams has partnered with UD to try a new option, which is a sheet of dry erase material that is fairly simple to afix to a wall and create any size dry erase board you want. This past Tuesday they gave us a sample surface in the Harrington A/B Commons Quiet Study Lounge that looks great and is a "big screen" horizontal surface that should allow for more than adequate writing space. We also plan to do an area in the Harrington C Commons Lounge before the end of the school year.

Brown Hall floor facelift during Spring Break

Residents of Brown Hall will be returning from Spring Break to a new floor in the Main lobby of the Green and north hallway of the building. The new flooring is Safety Zone tile that reduces the possibility of slipping when there's traffic into the space during rain and snow. The new floor has a pattern and replaces the former flooring, which was failing. The work was done during Spring Break to minimize the impact on residents.

New seating successfully installed in Rodney

In between storms, Monday March 1st was a decent day to put new sofas and loveseats in Rodney C, D, and F. The new furniture for the floor lounges replaces pieces from another company that we no longer use. Since those pieces were still functional, they have been recycled into the new "West Side Lounge," being developed in the former Rodney Dining Hall fitness area. Other extra furniture from this project will be used in the upstairs and basement Rodney Complex Commons Lounge areas. The photo depicts the new floor lounge furniture in the first floor of Rodney F.

See what's cooking in Dickinson!

Last spring we talked to residents of Dickinson through their Complex Coordinating Council about what they really would like to see in the Complex that would improve the experience of living in that area of campus. The concensus was that Dickinson was the only complex around campus that did not have the option for students to use a public area kitchen to make special meals or just as a once in a while break from the dining hall. We had to work with the University Fire Marshall, Kevin McSweeney, in order to make sure that we created a safe and efficient kitchen. We spent last fall working out the details and during January we were able to make the new kitchens a reality in the A/B, C/D and E/F Commons areas. The kitchens make the most efficient use of a small space with a new over the counter microwave, a 20" stove with Safe-T-Element burners, and a new countertop with larger sink. In addition, there are full size refrigerators in the next door lounge area to use with the appliances. As the photo shows, we packed a lot into a tight space. The work on designing and creating the new kitchens was all completed by our Housing Carpenters, Senior Mechanics, and Painters.

Retro-fitting an old Fitness Center

This week if you've happened to walk by the old Rodney Fitness Center that was inside the Rodney Dining Hall, you will have noticed alot of activity inside this room in preparation of a whole new re-design of the space. The former Fitness Area depicted in this photo after the exercise machines were removed, was closed down this fall but that doesn't mean the space is going to remain empty. Students in West Campus were asked by Residence Life to submit their ideas for re-use of the space and after review of all the ideas, it was decided that a multi-purpose entertainment and lounging area would become the new focal point in West Campus serving the residents of Rodney and Dickinson. In addition to new carpeting and ensuring wireless internet availability throughout the room through a newly installed access point, the new space will also feature a ceiling projector with a pull down wide screen for TV viewing or internet web surfing; two addition smaller flat screen TVs mounted on two of the walls at either end of the room; loveseats and sofas for lounging as well as stackable chairs to accomodate addtional seating for viewing special events; and freshly painted wall areas for displaying student artwork. A grand opening is scheduled for March 15, 2010.