Making Space for Students: Integration Changes cause concerns about usage of prime locations on the St. Paul campus
In the midst of phase two of campus integration, which will bring programs once based in the Minneapolis campus to the St. Paul campus, there are a lot of questions about maximizing the limited space available for everything the university needs.
The proposed move of the Public Safety office to the St. Paul campus library caused some concern among students when they first heard about it, so the Student Senate decided to send out a survey to College for Women students to get their feedback on what would be the best option. The space that the Public Safety Offices currently occupies used to be a coffee shop and meeting space for students that hosted a nice view of the campus, and many students expressed that they would be happy to get a meeting place like it back again. On the other hand, moving the Public Safety office to the library would also take away student studying space and computer labs that are used by many different departments.
The Wheel talked with Jasmin Yangwaue, Political Science ‘21, a Student Senate member who currently serves as the chair for the Student Spaces ad-hoc committee, to get her perspective on what students are thinking about for the proposed move.
E: What is your role on the Senate?
J: I’m the Org Affairs Co-Chair, so pretty much I help clubs re-charter or anyone that wants to start a new club, I help them through the process.
E: So how did you get involved with the student spaces ad-hoc committee?
J: The Student Senate, before the semester starts, has a Senate retreat and talks about issues and what we got from the surveys. Ad-hocs are the committees that we think that are important to make for what’s happening at St. Kate’s now. So in the Senate retreat, we decided that having a student spaces ad-hoc is important between the integration from the Minneapolis campus to the St. Paul campus. We’ve heard a lot of concerns about that because it’s something that’s needed on campus.
E: And what are student spaces like now?
J: From student concerns, we’ve heard that there is limited space for studying. There are concerns about group study rooms and where else on campus can they study quietly or get together with other people.
E: Do you also collaborate with the integration co-chairs?
J: They are actually in the student spaces ad-hoc too, so everyone’s working together. I also attend some of the integration meetings too…
E: To get a student voice, representation too. Have your student constituents told you about anything else they’re concerned about?
J: Yeah, just a lot about spaces and questions about how Minneapolis will be integrated onto the campus and making sure there’s a good flow.
E: So when did the issue about moving public safety to the library come up?
J: Angela Riley and Jeff Johnson who have the integration team were the ones to propose it, and I know that Senate wanted to ensure that student voices were heard instead of making a decision right away. We wanted to make sure students could voice their opinions rather than having the integration team making a choice. That’s why we made the survey.
E: What were the responses like on the survey?
J: Many students liked the idea of having that space back, but then there were also some concerns of Public Safety moving to the library, but yet they still want that space. It’s a communal space where students can not only study but they can meet with groups and especially for clubs too. It has a great view, and you can do so many things with it.
E: I also talked with Angela Riley and Jeff Johnson and they said that moving Public Safety to the library is one of the only ways they can make sense of moving it. The other options they have are really expensive or are intrusive to student space. So, what did you decide in your letter to students about the move?
J: In our letter, we stated that we only got the voices of students in the College for Women, but we didn’t get anyone from the College for Adults. We wanted to show that students do want that space back, but it’s unfair for students to choose from the library or that space because they are both very important to students’ education. It almost seems like a lose-lose at this point because we want to ensure that what they’re doing for students is for the students’ benefit. But the survey shows that they do want that space back.
E: Yeah, it’s hard to choose between those spaces, because the integration team has to work with very limited space, and so we have to have public safety and the library, but where is it all going to make sense to put it? Have you talked to any of the librarians about it?
J: Yeah, I’ve talked to librarians. They also have some concerns about moving that space out. I’ve met with them in meetings, and they’re also collecting data of what spaces are being used there.
E: What are your hopes for this integration, how do you hope it will turn out?
J: I really do hope that everyone can benefit from it. It’s hard because I know that space is so important, but yet the library is also so important. I wish there was a different solution. I wish [we could use] that building where Public Safety used to be. Either way, students are losing study space, they’re losing that classroom which is hard, but then again you gain that communal space that’s different from the library, which can also benefit the students.
E: It’s complicated.
J: It really is! I wish there was a perfect utopia where everyone could get what they want. Again, it’s a complicated situation, and in these meetings I try to do my best to represent student voices because students are paying St. Kate’s to come here.
In their letter to the St. Kate’s community, Student Senate expressed their desire for transparency when it comes to how spaces will be used after the campus integration. Student Senate supports the relocation of Public Safety from the 2nd floor of the CdC to the Library “on the condition that all stakeholders - faculty, staff, and students from different colleges - are included. Students must be at the center of discussions regarding, but not limited to, the creation, utilization, and design (including furniture choice) of these spaces before any final decisions are made.”
