Two weeks ago, the Office of Capital Planning and Space Management (CPSM) announced their decision to suspend all student reservations for the Klaus building and IC 103.
The unexpected move, which CPSM explained by citing lost and damaged equipment, surprised and angered several students, who use these facilities for group meetings and study space.
Fourth-year BME student Becky Randall was surprised by the suddenness of the suspensions.
“I had no idea that this was happening. Honestly, I never really heard about this before a lot of people started complaining about it,” Randall said. “I think that the administration should have asked people before they did something final like this.”
Another student, second-year IE Priya Ranganathan, was also annoyed at the lack of notice from CPSM.
“A lot of our groups had to reorganize a lot of our meeting times and places, and we had less than a week to do this,” Ranganathan explained. “I guess I understand why they did it, but I think they should have told us in advance.”
Other students complained that since Klaus provides an ideal space for large groups of students to meet, the suspension of meetings there will hurt campus organizations. The large classrooms in Klaus are equipped with projectors and speakers which several student organizations use during meetings.
Fifth-year PUBP student Jordan Xi pointed out that one of her organizations had to cancel their meeting that week because they could not find a suitable place to meet.
“A lot of people in my sorority were really annoyed,” Xi said. “We rely on those rooms to have chapter, and it’s really frustrating to receive an email the day before that says that you can’t have your meeting anymore.”
At last week’s SGA meeting, a student group called Reclaim Klaus decided to voice their concerns about the abrupt policy change. Comprising of members from several campus organizations, concerned students and SGA members, Reclaim Klaus had several complaints about the way CPSM handled the decision.
After the meeting, several attendants felt that their concerns were significant enough to warrant a recall of the CPSM policy.
“This policy affects a really huge number of students, and the way it was executed seems like they don’t care about us at all,” Randall said. “A decision like this needs to involve student input at every stage, and I’m shocked that we didn’t even know until well after this decision was made. [CPSM] should take a step back and review their choice.”
Several students also criticized CPSM for their lack of responsiveness following the decision.
“When something like this happens, a lot of students are going to have questions,” Xi said. “When we tried to reach out to CPSM with our questions, we didn’t get answers. It’s f**king unbelievable.”
A few students understood CPSM’s reasons behind the decision but were nonetheless disappointed by the unexpected suspensions.
“I understand their rationalization. The vandalism in Klaus is sometimes pretty noticeable,” said third-year CS student James Hu. “However, I still think that they should have given some sort of warning before they cut off their services completely.”