Student organizations across campus can now look forward to a larger, more functional workspace for conducting their activities in the near future.
The Student Organization Resource Center, plans to quadruple its current office area of 950 square feet to over 4,000 square feet, as an integral part of the Talley Student Center renovation project.
The design of the new center will take into consideration the needs of nearly 600 student organizations on campus, with an impetus on creating a “high visibility, strategically located” work area.
Deborah Felder, assistant director of campus activities, said the aim of this expansion is to create a collaborative space for the growing number of various student organizations to meet and interact.
“The SORC office will be situated in the center of our major departments like CSLEPS, UAB, Multicultural Student Affairs, and the Student Government, making it easy for students to interact not only with other student organizations within SORC, but with these departments as well,” Felder said.
The new center will be a fully equipped workspace for organizations complete with two dedicated conference rooms, workspaces with increased storage facilities, cubicles and mailboxes for the organizations. It will also house open lounge spaces and will be fully equipped with printers, laptops, multimedia projectors, advertising materials, die cut machines and graphic design resources—something Felder said she hopes will draw student groups to the new building.
“We want to be a magnet for student organizations,” Felder said. “The new SORC office will be a very inviting place and cater to the needs of student organizations. It will include cubicle spaces and conference rooms as well as workspaces where the students can create banners, fliers etc. “
Currently, student organizations hold their meetings in different buildings around campus in rooms that are not always permanently assigned to them, meaning the locations are subject to change. The new SORC office would provide more stability, which Rishav Dey, head of the N.C. State Quiz Bowl club, said he thinks will be greatly beneficial.
“We would love to have a space where we could conduct official meetings, as it gets tough sometimes to organize meeting space. Maybe a permanent space where we could keep official documents and assets,” Dey said. “Right now, we meet in Riddick Hall and we usually have to shift spaces as that it is not an assigned room. So we would definitely find [this expansion] helpful.”
According to Evelyn Reiman, associate vice chancellor of student affairs, the existing Talley Student Center was constructed in 1972, a time when the University only had about 13,000 students.
The University now has nearly 33,000 students, with close to 20,000 students involved in one or more organizations. The new SORC is built on this consideration for the increased demand in space and resources.
Reiman said the renovated Talley is expected to be more “student-centric,” and plans for expansion and relocation of the various extracurricular departments were drawn after discussions with student groups.
“The decision for the expansion was taken after discussions with students across campus. We went ahead with the plans after the completion of a two year focus group and one year of planning,” Reiman said. “From the dream stage to reality, every element of the new center will be student-centric.”
Just as the bookstore is set to be relocated during renovations of the area, the SORC office will also be located to a “swing space” in Harrelson Hall by June. Once the Talley renovations are complete, Reiman said the SORC office will shift to its new home on the fourth floor of Talley, and will also house updated dining options for students with an increase in the variety of menus. In addition to that, the building will be LEED Silver certified.
According to Reiman, one of the student organizations whose offices will be located within the SORC office will be Student Government, which will be of benefit to all involved organizations.
“As the appropriations for the student organizations are handled by Student Government, it will make their collaboration and interactions more convenient as they both will be situated right across from each other in Talley,” Felder said.
