During the week of Nov. 3, students were granted the opportunity to cast in their vote to name the lounge located behind the Robert and Mary Rita Murphy Stump Library.
“It was just created over the summer,” Samantha Maher-Sheahan, director of Campus Life.
Maher-Sheahan said, “It used to be part of the Bishop Quarter Room. Students could still access it before, but they had to enter through the library. As they were redoing the lobby at McGuire over the summer, they thought it would be a good idea to make it more open to students.”
According to Maher-Sheahan, upon deliberation as to what to name the lounge, the Saint Xavier Council received approval from President Wiseman to have Saint Xavier’s own student body name the lounge.
“It came up in the Senate committee earlier this fall, and they were asking about this space and what we were going to call it, and the Saint Xavier Council said, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if the students could name it since they’re the ones that are going to be using it?’” Maher Sheahan said.
“They went to President Wiseman to see if it was okay, and she said that it was a great idea, so that’s how that came along.” said Maher Sheahan
According to the Saint Xavier Council, their reason for wanting the students to name the lounge was primarily because the students would be the ones using the space.
Also, the SXC wanted students to be able to name their own space and have this lounge be different than all other spaces for students, as most areas of the school available to students are named after donors to the university.
The SXC felt as though student input is an important aspect of the university and wished to let them apply it in naming the lounge.
After all that, the results are in; they will be read over and they write down if there are any similarities in the students’ votes. If there are some similarities found then this will lead to another vote with the top names listed for students to choose from.
According to Sheahan, the second vote will presumably take place the week following the first vote, if not sometime soon.
Voting took place in the university’s diner between the hours of 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
The vote is a democratic approach to naming the new lounge that was part of the renovations done to the university this past summer.
The renovations done to the Warde Academic Center included the addition of the Center of Instructional Design and Technology as well as the relocation of Coffee Cats.
The second wave of renovations this past summer included the renovations near McGuire Lecture Hall and the front end of the Robert and Mary Rita Murphy Stump Library.
The renovations were funded by a state grant given to the university.
There were also opportunities for Saint Xavier students to vote for the lounge’s name in the offices of Campus Life, Student Affairs, Residence Life, and the Graham School of Management.
Keep an an eye out as well for the name reveal.
For more information concerning the naming of the lounge or how one would go about placing their vote or their opinion on what to name it, please contact the office of Campus Life (located at WAC L-103) at 773-341-5060.
Gisselle Lopez
News Editor
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