After being discussed for almost a year, Student Life is preparing to make its move down to the second floor of the Campus Center. The goal is to spread the staff between the three main floors for better access.

The move is part of UMass Boston’s Master Plan, to try and make better use of the space available in the Campus Center. Not only will Student Life move, but many student centers and clubs, and the student media offices, are being reorganized between the second and third floors to better serve the student body.

“We have been discussing how to make better use of space and to better serve what students want to do,” special assistant to the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Kelly Meehan said. “When you live in a space, you live in it for a while and find out what works, and what doesn’t, and how space is meeting, or not meeting, the needs of the students.”

As of right now, Meehan said, the spaces are not being used effectively and are not designed to do what students want to do.

She said that it also is an “issue of visibility,” and activities that do not need “mainstream locations” will be moved, in order to make better use of “private real estate.”

“If you want to make change and make things better, you need to start with space,” Meehan said. “It helps get to that new place sooner, because we already know what doesn’t work. We have new ideas for the same space.”

The furniture in the Campus Center is modular and designed for easy shifting, so not much construction is needed. This ability will serve to help Student Life in reorganizing the student centers.

“Student centers made a shift on the third floor,” Meehan said. “The sizes of their spaces are now equal. Some of them share space for planning social events and programs. The reconfiguring is to make the offices do what a student resource center does, and make it easier for students to get information relevant to them.”

Some cultural centers have been co-located, and some charters are being rewritten to refocus their missions. Some centers are expanding their missions so centers with similar agendas can work together and better coordinate events and maximize the use of resources – all to try and better serve the students.

“We won’t be able to meet all needs up here, so students should expect changes all over campus,” Meehan said. “Study areas, wireless access, lockers, things that commuter students need. We know what these things are and need to be deliberate in finding them. Facilities have been helping, so things can take place all across campus.”

Meehan also said that they need to be protective of student-only spaces, so the areas can better meet the students’ needs.

“It’s a dynamic thing – we’re looking at gaps and missing pieces, and finding ways to make it work,” Meehan said. “I’m sensitive to [the Campus Center] being an administration building. But, students use it, too. It needs to look like students live here. It’s not constructed to be lived in like a dorm, but we want students to have great-looking space. We need to make this area, and others, warmer and friendlier.”

FAST FACTS

• Student Life’s move requires a lot of coordination from many different people, which is why there is no set timeline.

• The original idea was that the move would take place before the beginning of this semester. Yellow memos were tacked to student clubs on the second floor asking them to pack their stuff by Aug. 3.

• However, this deadline has passed and no major moves have taken place. It is said that the move will most likely take place in January.

• “We’re not going to disrupt student activities in the middle of the semester,” Kelly Meehan said.