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Issue date: 10/3/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Jason Hook, Photographer Sophomores Brian Salas (left) and George Herrera (right) break in the UC's new professional ping pong tables.

Media Credit: Jason Hook, Photographer Three new pingpong tables are now in the UC for student use.

Students may have noticed a few changes in the UC as the for-home-use pingpong tables and pool table have been taken down and replaced with for-public-use quality tables.

Last year, about $1,000 was spent on recreational equipment in the UC including the well-used pingpong tables and pool table to help provide a more inviting atmosphere for students.

"(Pingpong) is better than sitting and watching TV," sophomore Matt Dunnivant said. "It gets me a little bit more active. (And) You meet people."

After the increasing popularity of student usage, the Special Events Facilities/Services decided to enhance its services.

The Special Events office has already started the process of taking down the for-home-use tables and will replace them with higher quality pool, pingpong and air-hockey tables and adding one foosball table.

"There are about a hundred times more people (in the UC) now," said Greg Pecina, executive director for Business Services.

This is a change compared to what has been seen during previous years, he said.

"Over the last decade or so, there have been a lot of students spending more time in their rooms," he said.

"With the invention of gaming systems, the fear that we had in recreation areas, like the University Center, was that it would be hard to get students out of their rooms. The tables were an idea to get that going again."

The new equipment will be ready to use within three weeks. The old equipment, however, will still be available to students, Pecina said.

The Special Events office is also in the process of creating a second recreational area at the Super Slab, also known as Roscoe's Den, behind the cafeteria across from the Rassman Building.

Currently, upgrades are being made to the food service component of Roscoe's Den. A TV hooked to expanded cable is installed and a game-room area will be available to students.

After all the upgrades, the process is estimated to cost $15,000.

"It's the difference between buying a lawn chair at Wal-Mart and buying a La-Z boy at Haverty's," Pecina said. "You can lay on them the same way, but one of them is only going to last you a season, the other may last you four or five years and that's really the concept."

The UC may see even more changes in the future.

"We need more space," Pecina said. "I want to look at the idea of proposing to the student senate the idea of building a game room on the first floor."

The university previously had a game room located underneath the UC. However, because of a lack of interest from the student body the game room was turned into an office for student organizations, Pecina said.

Now with the increased popularity of recreational tables, the department is seeing need for a new game room.

"People get in the way," freshman Darius Green said. "I have to keep moving the pool stick to let people by. I think they (the tables) should be moved to another location that people can still see the games being played at."

With the addition of offices and the expanded food service center this year, four meeting rooms in the UC have been lost, and normal student activities are difficult to schedule, Pecina said.

"We really need to be thinking in the future," he said. "Between three and five years, we need to consider building a game room on the first floor and building more meeting rooms."

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