Revamped Crest Room Opens for Student Use

Author: Peter Simon Staff Writer

To accommodate the growing needs of Middlebury College's 120 student organizations, the Crest Room in the McCullough Student Center has been converted into an all-purpose leadership center, including meeting space, a conference room and office equipment.

"It's great that student organizations have a nice location they can call their own," said Director of Campus Activities and Leadership (C-CAL) Douglas Adams.

A highlight of the renovated space is the second-floor conference room, which fits 20 people comfortably and also features a television with a VCR and DVD player.

The conference room has been in high demand from student organizations thus far, and has been almost completely booked since the new Crest Room opened. In previous years, most organizations were forced to find meeting space independently.

A copying machine, fax machine, scanner, printer and color printer are available for student organization leaders' use on the lower level. The room also has three office cubicles, two of which have computers with Internet access and basic software. All three have telephones.

In addition to the conference room, there are two smaller lounge areas, one upstairs and one downstairs. The areas are meant for informal meetings and need not be scheduled.

The upstairs lounge area, located next to the conference room, contains a bookshelf with books related to leadership.

The Crest Room was formally a student hangout, before being replaced by The Grille. "The College decided that we weren't getting much use out of the room," said Adams. "Everyone agreed that it would be a wonderful space for student organizations to use."

The College paid for the renovation of the space, which according to Adams just required sealing one wall, building a doorway for the conference room and making some minor lighting adjustments.

The College also paid for the furniture and new equipment. Many of the charges for upkeep of the room are funded by the Student Government Association Finance Committee.

Almost all the furniture and equipment in the room either has wheels or is relatively light, which was part of the plan.

"We wanted the space to be very flexible," said Adams. "We understand that student organizations' needs change with time, so we didn't build everything into the ground."

So far, the only problem with the room has been getting people to use other parts of it besides the conference room.

"I think the room looks so nice and formal that people might be shying away from it at first," said Jenna Sutton '03, the student manager of the Crest Room. "But more people will come once they realize it's here for their use."

The Crest Room is open 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on weeknights, and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Students who need to use the facilities during other times of the day can come to the C-CAL office to gain entry to the room, said Adams.