Brady Cates
bcates@uwyo.edu
The Wyoming Union staff and a few outside consultants held meetings with all the stakeholders throughout the university to discuss what should be next for the Union last week.
These meetings have brought an outside perspective to strategically look at how the Union is using its space and if there are opportunities to make some changes that would better support the students at UW.
Kim Zafft, associate director of the Union, said on an annual basis the Union staff goes over an annual report, planning and goal setting for each school year.
“On a routine basis the Union staff talks about changes, but these Union visioning meetings the past couple days was inspired by the Gardens discussions last spring,” Zafft said.
For the past 60 years the Union undergoes a big renovation every 20 to 30 years. The university is about to hit that 20 to 30 year mark within the next five years.
JJ McGinnis, SLCE (Service Leadership Community Engagement) marketing coordinator, said there are great programs and great events happening around the university, so more students are wanting to be involved.
“We are busting at the seams in our current model, so we just think there might be an opportunity to make it better,” McGinnis said.
This year’s Union visioning meetings were the first time external consultants have been brought in to help reallocating space in the Union.
“We are having these meetings with all of the stakeholders throughout the university to see what their perspective is,” Zafft said.
Paul Drake, UW student majoring in architectural and civil engineering, was at the student session and gave his opinion on what he thinks is working in the Union and what could be changed.
“I think that the circulation through the breezeways is good and students are often stopping to look at the bulletin boards and things to see what events are going on around campus, which helps students get involved,” Drake said.
Drake said he would like to see something to draw students’ attention to the upper and lower levels of the Union.
“Students aren’t really drawn to the upper and lower levels of the Union so it’s much harder for ASUW and student organizations that are located at the lower level of the Union to draw students to their offices,” Drake said.
Zafft said the meetings have been beneficial to the Union staff and visioning team to hear what the stakeholders’ perspectives are on the facility.
