News

Campus : Student union building planned for SFU

By Shara Lee, News Editor

Conceptual plans to build a student union building at Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby campus have been signed by the Simon Fraser Student Society, the Graduate Student Society, and the University.

The three parties have signed a letter of agreement and were harmonious in their intent to participate in this joint venture together with Bing Thom Architects. The architectural company has been contracted to create a preliminary plan for the design of the student union building, as well as renovations to the student spaces at the west end of the Academic Quadrangle.

According to Larry Waddell, director of Facilities Development at SFU, the plan is to “link the student union building to Convocation Mall, the Maggie Benston Centre, and the Academic Quadrangle.”

Waddell said that there are also plans to build a new SFU art gallery that is estimated to be around 12,000 square feet and will be accessible from Convocation Mall.

He also stated that along with creating completely new facilities, the University also has plans to renovate certain parts of existing student space that will connect to the student union building. “The student union building is part of a bigger plan we have,” said Waddell. “We wanted to make improvements and also make sure that everything is linked,” he said, referring to the connected buildings at SFU. “We’re thinking of more and better ways to improve circulation.”

The University, for its part, hopes to address the ever-present problem of the Burnaby campus being known to students as a commuter campus — a place students only come to for classes and a place they leave immediately after. “Students need spaces to go between classes,” said Waddell. “These renovations should encourage them to spend more time on campus. Our goal is to improve the whole west side of the AQ.”

SFSS President Joe Paling expressed strong agreement to the University’s plans. “It was the general plan of Arthur Erickson to have buildings connect,” he said. “The University needs a SUB building because their main issue is recruitment and retention. We want to make the University more student friendly. We’re way behind many universities in that we don’t yet have a SUB.”

Paling stated that the Student Society would be seeking full autonomy of the student union building itself.

The Graduate Student Society has only recently signed onto the project and thus at this point do not have as clear an idea of what they want from the student union building. “We want to talk to grad students and find out what they want,” said Clea Moray, president of the GSS. “Right now we have a small committee of people deciding what features we’d like to have.”

According to Graham Lyons, secretary of the GSS and chair of the graduate student union building committee, the committee is still looking for grads who want to join in the planning stages.

“The only information we’ve collected from grads so far was from a small survey we did that got around 65 to 70 responses,” said Lyons. “The thing we seem to really want is our own pub.”

The GSS has decided to spend up to $10,000 from its capital funds to be spent on conceptual plans. Right now the figure is approximately $7,500 for the GSS.

The University is putting around $11,300 into the plans and the SFSS will be spending roughly $56,500.

Waddell stated that the University feels “very comfortable” with the Bing Thom team. “We felt they were efficient and cost effective,” he said. Waddell also noted that Bing Thom Architects was the company used by the SFSS and the University in the preplanning stages of the student union building.

The SFSS, the GSS, and the University are all very much on-board for working together for plans on the student union building. “We’re excited that the two student societies are willing to participate,” said Waddell.