Something New for CU

Pictured above is a photo of the main TV vewing area in the new commuter student lounge. 
Photo Courtesy of Tyler D'Angelo 

Concord University is known for having a significant amount of commuter students. Not only that, but the commuter population is growing per year. A lot of times, for students, Concord is like a second home due to the amount of time they spend here. Commuter students do not have the opportunity to go to a dorm room to get something they may have forgotten for class and are not able to catch a quick rest in a dorm room between classes. Concord University has noticed the commuters and their need and have decided to help. Andrew Sulgit, Director of Student Activities and Student Center, discusses the new commuter lounge for students.

    Sulgit says that he had noticed the commuter population’s growth. “I noticed that the commuter population at Concord has increased and I noticed that the actual commuter lounge held very few students at the end of the day,” he says. With such an increasing number of students in the commuter population, one would think that they need a place that can truly meet their needs. Sulgit said this was his way of thinking behind the idea. His thoughts behind it were that the lounge needed a bigger space, accessibility, and one that was just overall closer to the main places on campus.

    There were several parties involved in making the decision for the new commuter lounge. Sulgit said they found the most reasonable place for the new lounge, subway sides. “Subway sides seemed like it made sense. It wasn’t capitalized on by any one group at that point. Being that it was larger, had a lot more seating, had most of the technology already in place, and was in good proximity to the library and restaurants, it just made a lot of sense,” he says. Even though a lot of student organizations held their meetings there, Suglit said that it would not interfere because a lot of commuters are typically gone by the evening.

    The new lounge is much more student-friendly now. There are study areas to utilize, more tables set off away from the main TV viewing area, and just more overall options for people. Cellphone and tablet charging stations are even being added soon. Now that the commuters have a different lounge and had moved from the old one, one may ask about the use of the old lounge. Sulgit made it clear that the old lounge is still in use by saying, “The old lounge used to be the student government office. The current student government found out that when you’re away and isolated, your interaction with students is a little bit less. This current student government is very interested in recruiting new students for SGA, being visible, and being around and available if there are questions.” Now that the SGA office has moved from their old meeting room, that room is now a conference space where a lot of the groups that had previously used subway for meetings.

    Sulgit is optimistic for the new lounge. He says that he has seen a lot of commuters utilize the space in the old lounge and wanted to provide them with a bigger space. “Even if some students wanted to use [the lounge], they may not have been able to use it because there wasn’t enough space,” he stated. Sulgit hopes that even if students don’t use it, they should still poke their heads in and see what it is about. He said that he is also very interested in hearing feedback. “I’d really be interested in hearing some feedback about what people would like for the lounge, but also what some commuter students would like to see as far as activity programming goes. I want to meet commuters at their point of need more than in the past,” he says. Students are welcomed to contact Sulgit by email with ideas or feedback at sulgit@concord.edu.