Student Focus Group, April 19, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Students:
Becca Steinhoff, Renee Bindewald, Jeremy Freeman, Jamie Parlier, Ben Judge, Jonathan Ledford, Sarah Leonhardt, Christine Templeton, Emmy Honeycutt, Lindsey Thompson, Katja Greeson, Scott Arico, Randy Ridenour and Keith Brannum
Working Group listener:
Christine Riley, Chief of Staff, Renee Bindewald and Ben Judge
1. Landscape & greenery are wonderful. Views of the outside from inside buildings are important to maintain.
2. Consider an amphitheater for classroom and informal use. An amphitheater facing Carol Belk Theater could make the AC Reynolds Green a little more usable.
3. Outside classroom space is important – not too formal, but not so informal that we sit on the grass which can be wet and/or uncomfortable. Needs to be centrally located. Another location for an amphitheater is on the slope of the Sherrill Center facing the athletic fields.
4. The Quad:
a. The quad is our iconic symbol, and a special gathering space.
b. Need more shade trees, especially on the quad.
c. The quad should not be manicured lawn – this is not environmentally wise. Consider adding native trees and wild meadow that does not need to be maintained.
d. c. was followed by suggestions to leave it as it is since it is so iconic.
5. The next residence hall should be on the far side of Owen Hall, if there is going to be more than one added because then this would create more cross campus student traffic.
6. Need more social spaces to keep the campus vibrant and keep us from just going from class to and then leaving campus. There are many social spaces for on-campus students, but not many for off campus students. They would need tables/chairs like in Zeis, not 30-year old lounge chairs like the ones found in Karpen Hall.
7. Library: needs a back door in order to make it a campus hub. It is a great place to be.
8. Accessibility: Our sidewalks are difficult to navigate on crutches or in a wheelchair. There are some places that you just can’t get to. Some of our automatic doors don’t work (Governor's Hall 3rd floor breezeway, Karpen’s bottom floor.).
9. We have space, we should not overcrowd the campus. We should diversify our buildings and not have discrete zones of just academic or just residence halls.
10. Governors Village: The footprint it is on is not being used to its full potential with the current renovation. If the buildings were torn down, we could put a larger dorm with greater capacity on that footprint, which would be better (but also holds value as is because of its history with campus).
11. Chestnut Ridge: Should be maintained as a recreation space, and managed as a biodiverse space.
12. Pedestrian walkways at Highsmith Union: make it flexible to use for Move-In Day, emergency vehicles, but it’s a good idea to close it off to general traffic.
13. The Sherrill Center – it is well-placed on campus, and the architecture is lovely.
14. We need a Welcome Center for visitors coming to campus. Perhaps it should be in Highsmith, where there is always lots of activity going on. This would be welcoming to potential students. Admissions is very hard to find, even with directions.
15. One Stop Student Services Center – it’s a scary place. If you can find the elevator, there are no signs when you get off the elevator in the basement, just a blank wall, and a long blank hallway. Students often mistake One Stop for Financial Aid [again, because of no signs] and then find out, once they have waited in line, that they are in the wrong place. Admissions and Financial Aid need to be more accessible and easier to find.