Six months after the Shapiro Campus Center opened its doors to the Brandeis community, the University has begun to plan the future of the Usdan Student Center, enlisting the aid of students in the process.On Thursday, Feb. 27, a newly established advisory committee met to discuss initial proposals for Usdan. Members of the committee including Executive Vice President Peter French, Senior Vice President Jean Eddy, Dean of Arts and Sciences Jessie Ann Owens, Daniel Feldman, chief of staff in the Office of the Executive Vice President, Student Union President Ben Brandzel '03, Class of 2005 Senator Michael Corwin '05, Rosenthal Senator Erica Lemansky '05 and Kimberly Frederick, member of Committee on Graduate Student Issues, among others.

According to the Web site of the executive vice president, the University began in the spring of 2001 to assess empty space that had opened in Usdan after many offices had moved to Shapiro. They enlisted Chan Krieger & Associates, the University's consultant for the campus master plan, to examine the reuse of Usdan. The advisory committee's activities make up a second phase of this ongoing process, the conclusions from which will be presented as recommendations to University President Jehuda Reinharz.

Feldman further detailed the current process. "We've structured a process where the architectural consultants who are working with us are meeting with a bunch of constituents -- a broad range of people -- and the goal of those meetings is really just to have initial conversations where ideas are put on the table and the architects and consultants are trying to understand the needs and desires of each of the different groups," he said.

"Ultimately, there will be an open forum as part of the process of the whole student body," he added.

Corwin said he is pleased with the University's inclusion of students in the process "In one way it is frustrating because working with high level administrators and outside consultants is a slow process, but I'm glad to see that undergraduate interests are being well represented on the committee," he said.

Even as plans move forward, however, the University remains cautious about funds available for the project, according to French. "I think it's sort of a critical element to this: What are the costs going to be and where is it coming from?" he asked rhetorically. "That's not entirely clear yet. We did put money into the Fiscal '02 budget and Fiscal '03 budget for some of the moves and planning related to Usdan. The capital costs on this could be very substantial."

"We will be looking within the University's capital budget for some funding, although that budget has been reduced, which constrains our options," French added. "(Reinharz) is also looking for outside funding for this."

Other factors may affect available funding as well. Although Usdan currently meets all fire code standards it needs to, if the building were substantially altered, the University would be required to bring it up to current standards, which are more stringent. "It's a big part of the expense that we need to look at," Feldman said.

French, however, said this would not guide the University's planning: "I wouldn't want to approach this by putting some sort of artificial limit on what we're going to do," he said.

"If the available funding doesn't support (what we want to do), we need to look at a lower option, but the goal would be to do what we want to do," Feldman said.

French, however, said the process remained in its initial stages "This will probably all unfold over a number of years ... We are very likely going to outline a process that will take three or four years to really fully materialize."

The University has already found a few uses for Usdan it wishes to focus on, however, according to Feldman. "There seems to be a real consensus both from the students and certainly from Jean Eddy and from Jessie Ann Owens and University leadership about developing a one-stop center for all student services," he said.

"The primary focus is a student-center building and the one-stop service center is a part of that. Student leadership has made it a very high priority to have (a recreation center)," French added. "Student leadership has also suggested there is a need for additional space for student groups."

Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer said he is very excited by the prospect of a new game room being installed in Usdan, another aspect of proposals now being discussed. "This campus has always not had an adequate game room ... the one we had was way down in the bottom of Usdan, below the boulevard; no one could find it," he said. "It just really wasn't adequate at all."

"There's enough square footage there that we could go much further beyond what someone might think of as a traditional collegiate game room and more towards a recreation center," Sawyer added.

The new recreation center, proposed to be located in the former University Bookstore space, would include traditional games, but would also be a place where students interested in the outdoors could come to borrow equipment to go mountain biking and cross-country skiing, Sawyer said. "Too often people think of our student body as being kind of an urban, east coast, city dwelling, hermit-type of student. We disagree. We think we have a lot of students who would enjoy challenges beyond campus."

There is also a proposal to make the Student Service Bureau a part of the new game-room space, to help move student needs into one convenient space, Sawyer said.

The relationship the revamped student center will have with the new campus center has become an important part of the process. "All of us felt very strongly that we didn't want to jump into the Usdan plan activity until the community had an appropriate amount of time to develop its use patterns in the (Shapiro) Campus Center," French said.

"It's difficult to develop a synergy until you really understand what the one half of it is; then you can figure out what makes sense for the other half," Feldman added.

Sawyer outlined one vision for a bipolar campus saying "I think this building as a complement to Usdan in its next form will have provided enough time and enough effort to really balance out both places. You'll have kind of an anchor at both ends of the campus."

Corwin said whatever the outcome, Usdan will soon be a very different place. "One of the things we might have to get used to is Usdan being a different kind of student center," he said, "one focused on serving students and making their lives here easier instead of being a home for student activities and clubs.