Published: October 09, 2008 12:38 pm            

New A&M-Commerce Student Center will be a ‘laboratory for learning’

This is the first in a two-part series on the new Sam Rayburn Student Center at Texas A&M University-Commerce





As you enter the brand new Sam Rayburn Student Center at Texas A&M University-Commerce, laid into the floor is a star with date 1889 written beneath it. According to Student Center Director Rick Miller, that star and date are a gateway for students embarking on their college and professional careers.

“Because this is a big huge laboratory for learning and leadership, when students come in and they see the 1889, they know we started at one point in time,” Miller said. “But where they go in life to be a world changer themselves like Mr. Sam is entirely up to them.

“The points of the Texas Star point to all over the university. We want them to know this their home.”

Although the new student center in not yet complete, the building has taken shape on the outside and crews are busy getting everything ready on the inside.

According to Miller, the students helped design and fund about 70 percent of the building. When design the facility, the credo the students gave the university was “max use, max space.”

“No big, empty lounges, no meandering hallways,” he said. “They wanted everything to have multiple purposes and be utilized all the time.”

The new student center sits at the heart of the campus and Miller believes it will be the new hub of activitiy at the university.

“It will be a link between the residence side of campus to the academic core,” he said.

The rooms in the facility will bear the names of the core values the university wants all students to develop while at Texas A&M University-Commerce. Those values include vision, integrity, innovation, pride and tradition.

“Those are the values that are important to them (the students), but they’re also important to leadership because we want the whole building to be a learning lab,” Miller said.

The student center will also be a showplace for student artwork and video productions. There will be four 42-inch flat pannel screens on the wall opposite the front desk.

“We’ll be able to tell the university’s story — past, present and future,” Miller said. “We’ll be able to salute and celebrate distinguished alumni when they come through. We’ll be able to welcome tour groups.”

The front desk will also include a touch screen guide to all events that are taking place at the student center.

“Suppose your coming up to a meeting here,” he said. “You know it’s around 2 o’clock, so you come up and see the schedule and go ‘Oh, there it is.’ But you have no clue where that meeting is. You hit it and it tells you about the meeting. You tap it again and it gives you a 3-D map of the building and tells you how to get there.”

The system will also have events at other locations on campus and will display a 3-D map of the university.

Some areas in the new student center will be a combination of several different places at the old facility. The Service Center will be a place where students can make copies, develop signs banners and posters and imprinted specialty items.

“You’ll be able to do all the production and order-taking for graphics,” Miller said. “If you want to get some 8 1/2 X 11 flyers done, as well as a three-foot by six-foot banner, you can do it in one place. This becomes a vital place for our students, faculty and community to be able to come in and look at what they can do for their organizations.”

The new student center will also include an Einstein’s Bagel Deli for students to grab a bite to eat. In between classes, or after, they’ll be able to gather at different spots all over the new building.

“We tried to create ‘sticky’ places — places where people want to hang out and chill a lot,” Miller said.

        

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