The Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, “The only constant is change.” Whether we’re talking about haircuts, the Facebook layout or Pepperdine’s own campus, it’s something we all learn to live with. Students who returned to campus for fall 2009 were pleased with the new central campus area, especially after the construction nightmare from the previous year. This year when we all arrived, we were greeted with a brand-new HAWC. We appreciate the administration’s desire to improve student spaces and create an attractive on-campus environment. Knowing that one of the main motivations behind the HAWC renovation was to reinforce campus community, we offer our recommendations for maximizing the community potential of this space.
We hope that the new design will not prove to be style over substance. The HAWC is the latest part of our campus to get a facelift as part of the attempts at keeping our “Most beautiful campus” title intact. Whether or not the new interior looks good is not in question, and we deeply appreciate that the Administration included students in the planning process. The student center was definitely in need of a change to keep up appearances. The problem is that now, it can feel more like a hotel lobby, than a student center.
The new HAWC seems to be a bit smaller than the old design, due to the extension of the coffee shop on the second floor and offices on the first floor. Hopefully the coffee shop will provide good space for socializing and study groups, but we are concerned that the smaller space may prohibit events like PIT, which tend to draw large audiences.
Anyone who has been to a PIT show can tell you that there is no empty space in the HAWC on performance nights. Students are seated wall-to-wall and right up to the stage with little breathing room. Consider that if it was that bad before, how are they ever going to be able to fit everyone in there now? Squishing students into the now smaller HAWC would limit attendance, which would be antithetical to the renovation’s purpose. We suggest that coordinators of events like these be offered other, larger on-campus venues. Opening up Smothers or Elkins to PIT performances would allow more students to attend. The packing of students into the Sandbar for last Saturday night’s Coffee House was equally crowded. Students who go to these events often have to fight for space and struggle to enjoy the events to their fullest in the midst of the crowding. Overcrowding at community events is not just uncomfortable; it can be dangerous, too. Providing larger venues would eliminate safety concerns about following fire code.
The former two pool tables and two pingpong tables have both been reduced to one each barring more than one group of students from their use simultaneously. The piano is nowhere to be seen either.
Major universities routinely have a “student union” building reserved entirely for student recreational use. We do have our beloved HAWC, but alas, it is not our own. Sure, the university needs to put those offices somewhere, but it seems like every time more office space is needed, it comes at the expense of the students’ space. Once upon a time, there used to be a Lovernich common area, today, it’s better known as Special Programs. And now, after the renovations, there is even less community space for students outside of their dorms. Pepperdine is a small school, but not that small. For 3,000 undergraduate students, the HAWC and the Sandbar really are not cutting it.
The best thing we see in this is the extended food area. The new mini-caf section opened Monday and appeared to be doing well. If the popularity of the HAWC Café takes off, we may see a rebirth of the space as a primarily culinary outlet. We are definitely all for having a greater diversity of food choices on campus, but the need for a recreational space will remain. New things are great, but if they take the place of something else, a substitute needs to be provided.
The sense of community at Pepperdine is already loose enough. Our campus is secluded, and we don’t have easy access to the surrounding area like students at other schools do. Our athletics don’t draw massive crowds. Most of our interactions are with each other, here, in our self-contained campus. Pepperdine is a school that desperately needs a strong sense of community, and there are many students who work tirelessly to try and build one, but they can’t do it without a foundation, we need communal areas. We hope that as Pepperdine prepares for its next round of future additions they keep that in mind.
