As Ohio State students and the community continue to navigate through the new Ohio Union, some said they would have liked to see more out of the $118 million building.
“It’s more of a social meeting place and has less quiet study areas than I thought there would be,” said Emily Tara, a first-year in English and journalism.
Equipped with ballrooms, administrative offices, study spaces, three dining options, a performance hall and a theater, the Union offers many group study rooms that can be used if reserved.
“About 78 percent of the reserved rooms are being used by students,” said Tracy Stuck, director of the Union.
However, Will Garner, a first-year in health sciences, said there was too much office space, and Daniel David, a first-year in communication, said that a place to purchase groceries would have been a nice addition.
The one missing feature that seems to have many students pondering its absence is a bowling alley. Present in the previous Union, rumors that one would be built in the new Union ran rampant during construction phases. Those in charge of planning the Union have taken note of the students’ complaints.
“In our original plans, we wanted [a bowling alley],” said Kurt Foriska, the associate director for marketing at the Union. “We talked to other campuses [that had one], and with the cost of building and upkeep, it wasn’t feasible … it was one of the toughest pieces to give up.”
Foriska said they are still in the exploratory phase of trying to figure out some way to incorporate a bowling or gaming option into the Union.
Although there is some scrutiny of what is and what is not in the multi-million dollar project, some students said they like what they see.
“They kept Woody’s Tavern, which is pretty cool,” said Bob Wining, a second-year in animal sciences.
Haley Dix, a first-year in communication, said the Union is serving its purpose.
“There are so many facilities [on campus] that putting everything in the Union would make it obsolete,” Dix said.
Foriska said that making sure there were no unnecessary duplications was part of what went into planning the Union.
“People wonder why there aren’t billiards in the Union, but it’s because there are some at the RPAC,” Foriska said.
The main priority that went into the Union decision-making had to do with what the old building lacked, Foriska said. He said there were groups who needed space to dance, but it bothered those who were using the space for meetings. So planners enlisted the help of students to come up with a game plan in three phases.
Foriska said the first group of students visited other schools’ student Unions to discover what OSU’s Union was lacking, which helped build support for building a new one. Then, a second group helped in the design phase, determining how students were actually utilizing the space. Finally, a third group helped to decide what kind of food, chairs and other details the Union was going to have.
“Students had a major impact on interior design,” Foriska said.
“There was a lot of taste testing and chair testing.”
Stuck said the input of students was utilized throughout the entire process of planning the Union.
“We tried our best to include all of the students’ needs,” Stuck said in an e-mail. “As you can imagine, you can’t do everything.”
