THE FUTURE OF THE USU

By Sofia Carlos And Michelle Lin

WRITTEN

Illustrated By Julie De Leon

APRIL 2023

APRIL SHOWERS ISSUE

The University Student Union has been a fixture of campus life at Long Beach State University for decades. ASI is now looking to upgrade the building through their Future U project. The Future U project aims to renovate and expand the USU as LBSU’s population has outgrown its central hub for campus life and socializing. A main component of the Future U campaign is to include student input throughout the process of planning the new USU.

The Future U project is using the “alternative consultation” process throughout the planning and renovating of the USU. This is in place of a referendum process, which would have required a “yes or no” vote on Future U in order to be passed. According to ASI’s Future U website, the alternative consultation process is designed to “...(1) engage large portions of the student body; (2) educate students on the issues and components of the USU project; and (3) gather information that will shape the improvements to the USU.” So, essentially ASI wants students’ input during the renovation of the USU.

Since the Future U project is centered around student feedback and input, ASI has used different methods for outreach and engagement from students.

“Our engagement goal was 15,000 and our numbers, to date, are 17,816, which includes events and the University Dining Plaza showcase attendance, tabling, presentations, and survey responses,” said Taylor Buhler-Scott, Associate Director of Programs and Communications at ASI. Despite Future U’s outreach efforts not all students know what the project is. Eduardo, a senior economics major, and Christian Peel, a third-year creative writing major, were both unaware of what the Future U project is.

“I don’t think I’ve heard of Future U,” said Peel. “I couldn’t even tell you if I’ve seen an advertisement on it.”

Peel was asked about the likelihood to take the survey from Future U. He said that he would have possibly taken the survey if it was a survey from his professor but he probably would not have taken the survey if he did not have prior knowledge of it. Students like Eduardo mentioned that they felt as though there were other uses of what the Future U project could have potentially used the money for, in terms of the USU: flushable toilets and faster elevators to start, paper towel dispensers that aren’t broken half of the time, pipes, amongst other things as well. Students had also mentioned, anonymously, that the escalators and its functionality was also a concern they felt needed to be met prior to any large scale renovations by the Future U project. While there is a need for a system upgrade for the University Student Union, a consensus amongst students is that there are simply other things within the USU that need their attention.

Students from lower campus have also stated that they weren’t aware of the USU and its location prior to other students explaining it as a hangout spot. Many expressed their frustration with a tuition fee raise for a building that had not been something that would be an impact on those students that spent most of their school days in the lower half of campus, and rarely, if ever, came to the upper campus. Even for the students who are familiar with the Future U campaign, some hold concerns about the project. “I’m the first one to jump on the bandwagon of these facilities suck and I would like them to be facelifted,’” said Jacob Ingram, a graduate student at LBSU and the general manager at 22 West Radio. “But we don’t know how much a renovation of the union is going to cost, we don’t know how much they’re projecting that the student union fee is going to go up by, we’re not seeing a timeline.”

One of Ingram’s concerns lies with what he feels is a lack of transparency on ASI’s behalf about what the fee increase is going to fund in the new USU. Ingram expressed that he believes ASI does want students to give feedback about what they want but also feels that the project is about raising the USU fee. The USU fee is a mandatory student fee that contributes to the maintenance of the building, provides programs and services, and pays off the mortgage/debt of the building. This is something he believes will be raised regardless, due to the amount of responses ASI is receiving from attaching incentives to students participating in the Future U campaign events.

As for the USU fee, it is projected to go up by approximately $240-270 when construction is completed. However, the projected fee amount is not exact due to the project concept and design not being finalized yet. How and when the renovations and expansion of the USU will unfold is something that ASI is unsure about as well.

“What the phases will be, what is phase 1, how many phases there are, those are things that are not known at this point in the project because that would be after it’s approved, after we are starting to know ing as the Future U project showroom. This has left students questioning why this space is not being utilized for food service.

“The infrastructure failures in the UDP make it even more challenging to do food service in that building,” said Buhler-Scott. “The building needs to be demolished and rebuilt to be fully operational” The rebuilding of the UDP would be the expansion aspect when redoing the USU. Additionally, BuhlerScott said the goal is to build more floors on the UDP. It’s important to keep in mind that this is the goal that the current renderings of the new USU show. The renderings on ASI’s Future U website are only projections of what the new building may look like, the actual USU could be very different from what is currently being shown.

“One thing about this process is nothing is final,” said Buhler-Scott. “We are not presenting images and a layout and saying this is it. The final will be what we can do feasibly with the cost and also the footprint that we have.” exactly what the project will be, exactly what the building will look like,” said Buhler-Scott. “Then we can identify how many phases and what those dates of phases will be.”

Throughout the renovations, ASI is planning for construction to be done in phases to ensure other parts of the building are still operational. This includes Beach Pantry which Buhler-Scott said will still remain open throughout renovations.

One of the motivations behind renovating and expanding the USU are the long lines at the food court. If you’ve been in the USU to get food you know exactly what I’m talking about. There are limited food options and because of this the lines can get very long. The reason behind lack of food places is looming an escalator trip up from the USU, the University Dining Plaza.

Since the pandemic began it was closed for an extended period of time and currently is operat -

Another reason listed on the Future U website to renovate the USU is that infrastructure and major systems are failing. In 2018 ASI did infrastructure improvements on the mechanical and engineering of the building called the MEP project. However, they could not update the plumbing. The MEP project served as a temporary fix to extend the lifespan of certain systems but now those systems’ lifespans have been exceeded. Buhler-Scott also said that sometimes upgrading certain system’s cost might not make sense compared to the cost of a renovation or rebuild.

With all of the feedback from Future U events and surveys, ASI is currently gathering the data and analyzing it to see what students want the most out of the new building. Their goal is to have the analysis complete by April so the project can be finalized by April or May.

So, why should current students who are most likely not going to experience the new USU care? As Ingram said, the notion is to leave the campus better than we found it. We hold the power of influence over the next generation of CSULB students. It’s up to us to voice what we truly want out of the USU. What we say now will determine the type of USU future students get to experience. The future of the USU rests with us.