The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate hopes to bring the campus center's top floor up to par with the new and improved Hotung Café, according to junior Antonella Scarano, the senator who is supervising the ongoing renovation project.
"The campus center is still ... pretty dark and not as modern" as Hotung, Scarano said.
Scarano said the project, which is a collaborative effort between the Senate and the Office of Student Activities (OSA), will install new desk lamps and artwork. Senators are also looking into adding a public, pay-to-print printer, new furniture and carpeting.
New desk lamps were installed in the upstairs study area last week.
The next step is to replace old posters with student artwork. "If you've seen, in the campus center, there are random, old, outdated posters on the wall," Scarano said.
She has contacted the Department of Art and Art History and members of the Tufts Social Justice Arts Initiative to get student artwork donated for display in the campus center.
Scarano wants to make the building a "showcase of student activity and student life."
OSA Associate Director Laura DaRos agreed. "We would like to showcase art by Tufts students throughout the building, possibly updating the projects each semester," she said in an e-mail. "Some of the ideas we brainstormed were photos from abroad, photos from campus, paintings, sketches and any other art by students, whether class work or from an organization."
Scarano said that the OSA and the Senate were ready to mount artwork as soon as they receive it. "It's just a matter of when I get it," she said.
Another possible way to decorate the campus center's walls would be to mount historical photographs of Tufts similar to those in the displays of Tisch Library and the upstairs section of Hotung Café, Scarano said. The Senate has not decided on whether to approve this idea.
Senators and OSA administrators are also looking into bringing a printer to the study area. DaRos said they will seek bids from vendors.
"It makes sense to have a printer in the campus center, rather than [having] to run over to the library or run over to the computer lab to print something," Scarano said.
There are currently two public computers with Internet access in the campus center. With the installation of a printer, students could print from these computers.
The Senate would also like to replace the furniture and carpeting in the campus center, but that will be a long-term process, Scarano said.
