It’s time for an Anderson facelift

Staff

When the iconic 75,000 square foot Carol Young Anderson and Dennis L. Anderson University Center was dedicated and opened in October of 2012 under the watchful eye of former President Linda Hanson, it set an exciting precedent for Hamline University.

The newest facility since August of 2004, the Anderson Center (ANDC) towers over the bustling intersection of Snelling and Englewood avenues. Solar panels, massive windows and a green roof succeed in distinguishing the building as what the Hamline website calls, “contemporary, functional and environmentally conscious.”

While the amenities are trendy and the architecture is paramount, ANDC takes too much liberty in being a university center. Although the initial excitement for the facility is retained by Hamline administration, it is continuously being lost on Hamline students.

The essential function of a university center is to serve the whole of the university. Likewise, the foundation of any university is its students. Given the increase in policies limiting student access to the facility’s esteemed functionality, it seems ANDC completed construction without securing its foundation.

As the all-purpose facility on campus, housing the only cafeteria and primary forum, ANDC monopolizes campus; the student body is concentrated in a single space while not being able to take full advantage of it.

In a democratic, student-oriented campus environment, the ability to canvas and advertise freely is essential. However, with ANDC’s paper-free policy, which prohibits distributions of all paper materials, circulating information in the form of posters, flyers and pamphlets is completely restricted.

This policy, while eco-friendly, severely disadvantages student organizations, clubs and individual students whose successful marketing and visibility relies on paper distributions in a flashy, high-traffic facility—the only such facility being ANDC. Hamline’s posting and canvassing policy would require all paper materials to be pre-approved and recycled or composted after their expiration, yet the busiest center on campus insists on being the least informed.

Ultimately, the facility does not prioritize student usage, thereby not meeting student needs. This is also evidenced by the change in the room reservation policy for the third floor: students are no longer authorized to reserve study rooms for personal use.

A majority of the day-to-day programming in the building is dedicated to external organizations or administration, events of which students are not a part. As a consequence, this complicates and discourages individual students’ attempts to use the facility for any sort of ambitious use. The expectation is made clear: ANDC is meant to showcase students, not engage them.

As the hub of the Hamline community, ANDC inherently isolates the largest demographic it’s supposed to serve: the student body. It seems the only intent for ANDC to incorporate students in its design or function was for increased admittance rates rather than retention or involvement.


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