New area boasts TV, refridgerator, microwave
Last Wednesday the office of Off-Campus Student Services officially opened the Off-Campus Student Lounge in the West Wing of the Russell House.
Boasting a flat-screen TV, desktop computers, a refrigerator and a microwave, the lounge is targeted to the 70 percent of students who live off campus. With the space having been opened officially about a week and a half ago, students can already be found sleeping on the couches, charging phones and using the Wi-Fi.
“[The lounge] is very relaxing,” said Adrienne Muller, a third-year biology student. “It’s a good place to go that’s still in a centralized place on campus and happens to be relaxing.”
Muller was visiting the lounge for the first time and had done so to fill time between classes with her friend Amanda Hart, third-year nursing student. While Muller found out about the event through Twitter, Hart heard about it through Facebook.
“It’s good that [it has] a fridge and microwave because I get to save money instead of going upstairs to Russell House,” Hart said.
The lounge is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and is normally staffed by a desk attendant. Melissa Gonzales, a fourth-year public relations student, is one of the staffers and said that construction for the lounge began last semester. Gonzales also stated that if students express a need for longer hours that Student Services would consider extending the operating hours.
“It’s to give off campus students a place where they can hang out, [a place that is] their own,” said Gonzales.