On this campus, there doesn’t seem to be a designated spot for students to hang out. This holds true for nearly all types of students.
Jace Patrick, a Public Relations major, expressed that BYU has more of a defined set of hangout spots due to their strong Latter-Day Saint culture and University of Utah students find places to hang out that match their area of individual diversity. Yet at UVU, there are not really such places.
“There is [just] no place to hang out here,” said Patrick.
One place on campus that does have a consistent turnout is the Institute building, where Latter-Day Saint students gather. A constant flow of students go there to enjoy a swear-free and non-controversial setting due to the LDS atmosphere inside the building. There are also ping-pong and pool tables for their enjoyment.
The sad thing is that a lot of students just come to their classes and leave without having extracurricular experiences on campus. It seems that most students lack the ambition to care about what is happening around campus.
A problem that may be the cause of a lot of this is the “on the fence” atmosphere between a pop culture society and a Latter-Day Saint society. This type of tear leaves students in Utah in a state of identity crisis, walking around campus without socializing with any type of group.
The library seems to be a place where quite a few of the athletes congregate to study or perhaps, more likely, check out members of the opposite sex. The noise level of a library has to be kept to a minimum, so there is only so much a student can do at the library.
For people in the music or acoustic scene, the winter does not really have much to offer to them for places to hang out. In warmer times, the steps by the fountains serve as a great place for acoustic entertainment, but that is only just a few months out of the year.
This campus’s atmosphere has not really been known for people getting together due to the lack of finding cultural wants for each diversity. People remain passive due to the lack of interest of the majority.
In a wilderness environment, animals congregate to a place where they feel like they are in a natural habitat. Many students feel as if they have not found their natural habitat at this campus, so they fail to congregate at all. It all winds down to the lack of awareness of what each second party has to offer, or possibly boils down to people not caring.
that’s why a bldg like the recently approved student life and wellness is vitally important to the campus. it will provide a casual and unique environment specifically suited to the needs of the majority so that students want to “hang out” on campus. we want students to feel like this is their school, they “own” it. but there needs to be a variety of options that will appeal to multiple people and settings. for example, areas where games–both athletic and nonathletic–can be held, quieter areas where students can relax and just chill, and areas where eating, movie watching, and other fun activities and events can happen. a gym where exercise and weight lifting can happen would also be ideal. they should not just focus on bldgs either, but make better use of outside areas too. this is an important issue for the admin and uvusa to address at uvu.