Blake Trent

10/19/2009

Don’t Hate the Tate

Essentially, that means that each student will pay $50 a year for the new Tate Expansion. Caty Dickensheets, a senior from Savannah, Ga., had no idea she was paying for the newly constructed student center. “I guess it’s kind of like a tollbooth fee. We walk through here, we might as well drop a quarter every time,” she said.

Not every student is as sarcastic as Dickensheets. “I think it could have been used for something better, but I’m going to be paying $200 for my time here. So, I guess that’s not a high cost,” Brannon Biddy, a senior from Atlanta, Ga. said.

Biddy and Dickensheets both found flaws in how the new student center was constructed. Dickensheets is not a fan of the Tate Café. “You would think that they would put it on the top floor or somewhere with outdoor seating. It creates a bit of a traffic jam,” she said.

But, students are not paying for the student centers’ food courts. The student fees that paid for Tate II didn’t include food court areas.” said Mike Floyd, director of food services."Food Services paid for that area," Floyd added.“The building architects designed the building and they, in-turn, gave us the space,” added Floyd.

The Tate Expansion center was also constructed so it could be somewhat self-sufficient. “All meeting rooms and also the Grand Hall can be rented out,” said Banks. “That money that’s being generated is going toward the Campus Life budget to operate the Tate II facility.”

“The Dawg Pen is sort of like a sports lounge. It has flat screen TVs and an area for gaming. We will also be installing two counter-style seating areas with laptop plug-in,” Willie Banks, director of student life and the Tate Student Center said.