The professional staff member who will run the UG is undetermined

Mariah Joyce
Editor-in-Chief

The Underground (UG) does not currently have an expected opening date, according to Assistant Director of Student Activities Julia Zimmer.

The UG has been closed since fall semester partially due to renovations to the space and partially because the College is still trying to determine which professional staff person will be responsible for running it.

Zimmer said that before they can find a professional staff person to run the UG, the College also has to redefine what that position will look like.

“We need to look at the bigger picture, what’s the right model,” said Zimmer. “Instead of just jumping in, we’re trying to be deliberate.”

Zimmer added that more student staff will have to be hired and trained before the UG can be opened again. 

Some staff stayed on in the fall semester and were able to get hours by helping with some of the improvements, but more staff will be necessary to make the UG usable.

Associate Vice President for Facilities Management and Development Doug Laditka said renovations were made to the UG to “enhance the aesthetics and safety of the space.”

According to Laditka, these renovations included enhancing the lighting so that it was safer and easier to control and building a new entrance stand to allow for larger exit doors, providing a safer means of exiting in case of emergency.

Laditka said that all of the facility work was officially completed last week when the space passed the city inspections.

The delays in reopening have affected campus organizations that typically reserve the UG for their events, including Wooster Activities Crew (WAC) and The Goliard.

Amy Melena ’16, WAC president, said that upon coming back to campus in the fall of 2015 she was told that the UG would likely open after Halloween. 

On Halloween, Melena said she was told the space would probably be open by Thankgsiving, and come Thankgsiving she was told that staff still needed to be hired, which would likely happen over Winter Break.

WAC began to plan events for the spring semester with the idea that the space would be available for use after Winter Break, but upon coming back to campus in Janu