With less than six weeks until construction begins on the Healey Family Student Center, student groups currently housed in the New South space received a memorandum from the Center for Student Programs notifying them of space available in other areas on campus to supplement storage and recreational space.

Although the memo provided long-term solutions for storage, it offered only short-term options for practice space for organizations and rehearsal space for performing groups.

The fencing team, club triathlon, dance groups and other organizations that use equipment would be housed in the LXR Multipurpose Room and would follow a schedule similar to that of Riverside Lounge in New South. However, these groups would have to schedule practices in compliance with the dormitory’s night-time quiet hours.

Mary Lim (SFS ’13), a dancer with Flip Dis Funk Dat, said that LXR would not be an adequate alternative to Riverside Lounge.
“Because LXR is very similar to a living -room situation, it is not very fitting for dance groups. I don’t know how many [groups] are in LXR, but it doesn’t seem very appropriate.” Lim said. “LXR seems suboptimal.”

Performance groups that do not require equipment would be housed in the Center Grill betweenMakom and Cosi in the Leavey Center. Groups using the storage spaces located in New South would move to new space on the mezzanine level of Regents Hall. As a result of extra funding allocated by the Georgetown University Student Association Finance and Appropriations Committee from the student activity fee, the space in Regents would also feature secure storage units.

Jack Appelbaum (COL ’14), GUSA senior counselor and director of student space, praised the storage options offered by the CSP.

“I think the new storage space is a huge win for the groups that are being kicked out, but also all the student groups in general,” Appelbaum said. “The storage space is huge, bigger than any other storage space on campus, bigger than the New South space.”

Morgan McDaniel (SFS ’13), chair of the Center for Social Justice Advisory Board for Student Organizations, was glad that her groups’ needs would be met.

“We’re not left out of the plan in that we’re included in the permanent storage solutions, so our groups will be included in that storage facility, which we’re very happy about,” McDaniel said.

The plan also would not provide long-term solutions for CSJ organizations that use New South as storage and office space. Instead, these groups would be relocated to Poulton Hall, where the CSJ is based.

“It’s probably not going to be possible to have a permanent office space for CSJ groups throughout the next year, so we’re looking into some options for temporary office space, possibly in the fourth floor of the Leavey Center,” McDaniel said.

Maya Chaudhuri (SFS ’13), a member of the CSJ Advisory Board, expressed frustration at the lack of permanent space available for CSJ groups.

“It’s definitely frustrating not to be allocated space for CSJ groups, but I don’t think this is a problem that rose today with the memo … it’s part of a larger structural problem,” she said. “We think that if student groups that are social justice groups lose this space, no one is going to work towards replacing it. Our worry is that it’s a long-term loss and not just a temporary loss.”

Chaudhuri said this was especially troubling in light of the increased interest in CSJ programming.

“There’s a huge increase in the number of people starting CSJ groups and participating in existing groups, and a big part of the problem is that we have more students interested in social justice than we have space allocated in [Poulton Hall],” Chaudhuri said.

The memo did not provide specific solutions for performing arts groups that use the New South space, and instead directed them to report to the Department of Performing Arts for their new space assignments.

Hoya Staff Writer Natasha Khan contributed reporting.