Believe it or not, no designated place for administrators, faculty and students to convene and socialize existed on the Hill until 1985. Thanks to the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate members, ground was broken in 1983 for the Elizabeth van Huysen Mayer Campus Center.
"It was fascinating to watch it being built," said Dot McAveeney, who was working in the Tisch Library during the center's construction and now works in the Office of Student Activities, located in the campus center.
In order to build the campus center, the Brown House - which was home to the ExCollege - was demolished, and the provost's house was moved. The idea was to create a campus center that tied together the campus's uphill and downhill areas.
According to McAveeney, the location of the campus center is ideal. "This really is the center of campus," McAveeney said. "Staff and faculty all come here for lunch."
Hotung Caf?© and The Rez have been around since the campus center opened. In a campus contest after the grand opening, Hotung was named "Ziggy's," but it was soon changed back to Hotung. The Rez is a student-run business, and has been controlled by Tufts Student Resources (TSR) from the beginning.
There have been rumors around campus that Hotung used to be a bar for students. Those rumors, in fact, are true. "They did have a liquor license, and they sold beer for students and faculty to sit down, have a beer, and have an intellectual conversation," Nealley said.
Serving alcohol did not prove profitable, however, so the caf?© has since stopped selling it.
Currently, the campus center is filled to the brim with a slew of administrative offices. Among them is the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs. Director Todd Sullivan said that the campus center is ideal for his office, since it "is truly the heartbeat of the Medford campus."
The campus center also provides a venue where all of the members of Tufts' community can gather. "I appreciate being here to connect with colleagues and students daily," Sullivan said.
Director of the Office of Student Activities Jodie Nealley said that the campus center has changed since its opening. "It used to be more library-like, and now we try to make it more oriented towards student life," she said.
Hotung has also been renovated, Nealley said, to allow for more room for student social events. The patio is the newest part of the campus center, having been built only seven years ago. The main conference room upstairs is also a recent development - it was converted from a locker room for commuter students.
McAveeney described the changes that have occurred since the opening of the campus center as positive ones. "The information booth is much more active now, there is more going on in Hotung, and the lounge is more active," she said.
The original plans for the campus center included three phases of construction, only two of which have been completed. The third phase would include a large multi-purpose room and a faculty dining room, among other expansions.
According to most students, the campus center meets their needs. "It seems to me that the students use the campus center as much as they can," senior Laura DePalma said. "I see that more people use it to study and socialize. People actually do use the facilities, as well as the other services that the campus center offers."
As far as actually pulling the campus together, one student found the campus center to be ineffective. "I don't think the campus center physically serves the purpose of tying the campus together," sophomore Michael D. Ojunga-Andrew said, citing "how far it is located from most of the buildings and residence halls on the upper part of campus." Ojunga-Andrew also noted the lack of space for services not directly related to the offices. "I think it would be better utilized if there were more spaces related to student services, like mail services and lost and found," he said.
Nealley specifically pointed out the possibility of having centralized mailboxes in the future. "Every student knows what a pain it is to change their address every year, so having a centralized mailbox system would help a lot," she said.
Senior Giancarlo Boschetti feels that the center could better unite the campus if more activities took place there. "It would be more together if there were more social activities, more pool tables, more ping-pong tables, and maybe a computer caf?©," he said.
Nealley said that the third phase of construction could include many of these options. "It is a University priority, and its time will come," Nealley said. "It's a matter of fundraising."
