A Student Center Befitting a World-Class University

Welcome to my Talley Renovation Blog! My name is Jennifer Gilmore, and I handle marketing/communications for Campus Enterprises, the organization that is spearheading the Talley Renovation Project. Campus Enterprises is the lead division for retail on the NC State Campus, and it includes NC State Dining, NC State Bookstores, Trademark Licensing, Lonnie Poole Golf Course, the AllCampus Network, and the operation of our campus student centers. We are also involved in bringing the new hotel and conference center to Centennial Campus over the next few years.

A little about me: I am a diehard Wolfpacker. My dad is a proud graduate and my mother worked as a secretary in Holladay Hall to help pay for his college expenses. The 1983 championship still looms large as one of the highlights of my life, and I still believe we can do it again!

I, too, am a graduate of NC State and have many memories of Talley Student Center: eating in the food court, performing on the stage in Stewart Theatre, and working many hours at Technician when Student Media offices were located on the 3rd Floor. I watched a lot of progress on campus during my time—four years of construction to D.H. Hill Library, the Carmichael Gym Extension and Witherspoon Student Center, among others—and when I came back to work here in 2008, I saw even more: A/C in the residence halls, a new Health Services Center, more dining locations, SAS Hall, and Carmichael Rec Center, to name a few. With each new building or improvement, N.C. State was saying, “We want better for the next generation because our students are worth it.”

D.H. Hill Library and Carmichael Rec Center are the two areas where I have seen student life grow and thrive since I was here in the 1980s…no more card carrels and CPU units in the Learning Commons: it’s actually engaging and comfortable to spend time there studying and socializing. And the Rec Center? It feels like a world-class fitness center, because it is!

Then there’s Talley…

Feels a whole lot like it did when I was a student, and that’s not saying a lot.

Sure, we have a Taco Bell and Freshens and yes, there are places to meet. Great shows come to Talley. But do you really want to hang out there? Feels more like a place to wait before you have to go someone where else or catch a bus.

Progressive universities across the country are re-thinking the role of their student centers, or student unions as some are called, because what is often missing from campus life is a place that creates a true sense of belonging and provides for the needs of its students with comfortable meeting spaces, services, and lounge space. At N.C. State, on occasion we get it on the Brickyard, the library, at basketball ticket camp out, and at key sporting events…but where do you get it every day? Certainly not Talley, but that’s where it’s supposed to happen. At your student center.

This blog is getting long, so I want to save a little for later. In future blogs, I will tell you a little more about why the University decided it was time for a new student center and how it fits in with the big picture for the university. We can look at examples of new student centers across the country to give you a better idea of what to expect. I will also share with you how the architects and project planners decided on a design, broke the space into big chunks allocated to the various tenants, then refined it into a building plan that will serve generations to come.

These are exciting times, and while there will be some inconvenience involved in the process, you will be witness to one of the biggest things to ever happen on this campus; a project that will essentially transform student life in ways you cannot imagine at this point. Join me and others who will blog about various aspects of the project as we engage the campus in the process and excitement of what’s to come. If you have questions you’d like answered here, email me at jennifer_gilmore@ncsu.edu.