New information to be released sometime next month via the Coffey Break.

By Luke Fillers, Staff Writer

Returning students may have been surprised to see a sign on the front door of the Huntington Union Building notifying students that there is an upcoming remodeling. With services such as Student Life and the campus bookstore temporarily relocated across campus, students must be wondering what is planned for the renovation of the HUB. 

“It is going to be a complete renovated building,” said Russ Degitz, Huntington University’s chief operations officer in an interview. “It’s going to contain the same components that the HUB used to contain but updated with more contemporary, twenty-first century, student-friendly spaces.”  

He believes that the HUB is a nice place for students to hang out but didn’t think the HUB truly maximized the potential that the building holds.  These designs include moving offices around and relocating the mailboxes to provide the HUB with more breathing room.

One obvious sign of this is the small construction zone on the mall side of Baker hall. This will be a pavilion-style building for outdoor mailboxes to free up a large block of space that occupied the HUB. The absence of this area can be used by students for other purposes. 

Aside from the mailboxes, there will be a return of many familiar things to the HUB. The bookstore, Starbucks, and a secondary dining option will all return to the location. The HUB will also remain the home for the Student Life. 

“The Student Life offices will be more strategically located so that it doesn’t take up much of the footprint of the building and [is] located on a different floor,” Degitz said. “The Starbucks and lunch option will provide the services for students that were there before with a little better student-friendly manner.”

An expansion of student usable space and a larger developed outdoor area for the warmer months is something to look forward to when the HUB is reopened. So when can we expect the grand reopening? The plans are to have the newly designed student center ready by the start of the next fall semester.  

The progress of the renovation is still in early stages of the paperwork, and further progress is waiting on financial funding from a government program, to be sure that the project will get the most out of the money.

Further updates regarding the renovation, including more details, are set to be released next month. With that release, Degitz stated that updates will be placed in the Coffey Break on a regular basis.

Though it is an inconvenience to students to not have the HUB this year, Degitz reminded us that “patience will be worth it and the HUB will really be the building its meant to be, which is a centerpiece to the campus and one that students can rally around to the maximum extent.”