About two dozen CWRU faculty and staff members gathered recently over dinner in the Tomlinson faculty dining room to share their opinions about one of the key elements of the University's 2001 master plan: What activities and services should take place in a new student center, and more broadly, what role should the center play in the life of the University?

While the University's consultants have conducted extensive surveys and focus groups to get students' responses to these questions, the dinner was the first formal time for faculty and staff to offer their thoughts. Rhonda Gross, CWRU executive vice president and chief operating officer, and Glenn Nicholls, vice president of student affairs, convened the gathering. Jim Wagner, CWRU provost, also attended.

"The student center is like a keynote. It is the epicenter of the University," Nicholls said. "It is the place were faculty, students, staff and alumni meet. It can take all sorts of forms, and what faculty and staff want may be different from what students want."

Heidi Kaplan, an account executive with the facility planning firm Brailsford & Dunlavey, began the evening with a review of the planning process for the center thus far and a summary of the firm's focus groups and surveys among students.

Included in the presentation were the results of an earlier "strategic asset value analysis." The analysis looked at 16 specific functions for the center, ranging from leisure activities to faculty/staff/student interaction to revenue generation, and asked members of the Student Center Advisory Committee to rate the center's importance for each category as "high," "medium" or low." Then they were asked to rate how well the center actually performs each function. In only two functions-revenue generation and operating expenses-did importance match the level of performance.

"Students choose to be here because of academics," Kaplan said. "They have low expectations of campus life and see limited opportunities for social activities."

According to the firm's survey findings, what students want from a center is a place to see and be seen, one that allows for informal interaction and, as one student put it, "a place to get loud."

The faculty and staff members who attended the session were asked to address five questions:

• How can the student center support the University's goal of striving to be one of the most powerful learning environments in the world?
• How can the center be used to harness the excitement of student and faculty interactions with cultural institutions, clinics, social service agencies, government and industry so that these activities are no longer considered extracurricular but rather transformative learning experiences?
• How can the center be used to showcase a culture of mentoring to students, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees and visitors?
• What services, programs and spaces should be located at the student center so that it becomes the place to meet at CWRU?

Among the suggestions offered for features and services the center should provide were:

• A world-class bookstore
• 24-hour dining and varied dining options
• A "one-stop shopping" information center where students could go to learn what University office or service they need to solve a problem
• Flexible event space.
• A room with a large-screen TV
• The University's radio station
• The University's student ID center
• A "soap box" where students can address other students on any issue of campus or public life
• The option for faculty to hold office hours in the center

Nicholls said results of the visioning session will be included in the report containing final recommendations for a new student center.