The University has dedicated a room in the Pavilion XI dining area as additional multiuse space for graduate students. Known as "The Back Room", the space traditionally served as overflow dining space but as of this fall is geared specifically to graduate students.
"The Graduate Student Council and the Office of the Dean of Students have worked together to identify common space for our grad students to gather, socialize and complete their good work," Assoc. Dean of Students Francis Aaron Laushway said. "This is an opportunity to recognize their place in the community and to offer them space to engage in very important work."
Laushway said graduate students had expressed concern at the lack of a space committed to their on-Grounds needs and had been working closely with Dean of Students Allen Groves and Patricia Lampkin, vice president of student affairs, to secure a private space to congregate.
"Graduate students don't typically live on the Grounds," Laushway said. "We've tried to identify space for graduate students to have as their own to hold office hours, to meet with undergraduate students whom they teach and with whom they engage in research."
To meet these concerns, the room includes a lounge area, dining tables and lockers for storage.
Reception from the graduate student community has been generally positive.
"I think it's been a great place to meet other people," said Elizabeth Ladner, a sixth-year history doctoral student. "We've been pushing for something like this for years."
The room still remains open to undergraduate students and the general public between 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. but Ladner expressed approval of such a compromise between graduate and undergraduate students.
"The focus of the University is rightly on the undergraduate population," she said. "I think the graduate students welcome any attention they do get."
The change is not the first in the Back Room's storied history. According to Laushway, the room used to be a popular pub when the drinking age was 18.
-Mike Lang contributed to this article
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