Recently, ETSU unveiled the University Commons area outside the D.P. Culp Student Center. This was an exciting event for everyone in the ETSU community and for future students.
During the Culp’s renovation, many students, including myself, have felt like the usual feeling of campus and community felt fragmented. With COVID-19 and most students not being on campus at all, the community feeling has been even more lost for many of us.
The Culp and the areas around it are the heartbeat of activity on campus, and many of my fondest memories from my first two years of college are from spending time with friends at the Culp. One of my favorite memories was getting coffee and sitting out on the patio of the Cave with my best friend when the weather was warm. After the Culp renovation started, that tradition could no longer happen.
With the new University Commons space, current and future students are going to be able to establish similar traditions with their friends like I used to have. Having an outdoor gathering space is essential to students because many people prefer to hang out outside after being in classrooms most of the day. Also, until the pandemic is completely over, gathering in outdoor spaces will be safer for those on campus, so it is great that we now have this outside space.
Students will also benefit because now we will have both the Quad and the University Commons space to host events, festivals or whatever else ETSU chooses to organize in the future. This potentially means bigger, more exciting events since the amount of space has opened up.
After many of us have been separated from both campus and friends for so long, having a sense of community is more important than ever going forward. Though I will be graduating this semester and will not be on campus to reap the benefits of our new space, I am glad current and future students will have the opportunity to come together in a common space, once again.
