Successful programs strive often to improve, revamp, and strengthen.

This is why the Honors Program is creating a new Honors Lounge, located on the bottom floor of Shilling. The new space aims to become a better place for Honors students from Freshman to Senior Year to study and collaborate.

“I think it will bring more unity among the classes. [Freshmen] don’t really know a lot of the older Honors Students.” Julia Krull said. Krull is a freshman member of the Honors program and a mathematics major, also tutoring for the Math Center, which has also moved in the wake of the new Honors Lounge’s creation. As she pointed out, although there are opportunities such as Scholarship Interview Day for Honors Students to mingle with upperclassmen honors students, a lounge would possibly increase the Honors Program’s sense of community.

However, The lounge’s creation is causing a chain-reaction. One can find the Honors Lounge in the old Career Center in Shilling. The Career Center has been moved to the Math Center’s previous location in the UC. The Math Center, in effect, moved to the old Office of Student Success near the Math Department, which stood vacant all of the 2017 fall semester.

The obvious benefactors, of course, would be the Honors Students. The current Honors Lounge can be found on the first floor of Dolson Hall, two floors below the Honors Program’s LLC on the third floor of Dolson. The lounge is a good place to study, do group work, or just relax—for freshmen.

As of now, the old Honors Lounge’s sofas have been moved to the new lounge, leaving only chairs and tables in the old lounge. At the moment, it is not the most comfortable place to study, but it is quiet.

For those who live off-campus and those who are looking for a place to work during any short, one-hour breaks between classes, the current lounge is impractical due to its distance from the main campus. Not only that, but many freshmen also choose to study in their dorms instead of utilizing the lounge. After all, a majority of the Honors freshmen live in Dolson, anyway. Why go to a lounge if you will simply see the same people?

The new lounge is larger, with more furniture, rooms, and certain amenities like a refrigerator. One of the rooms further to the back of the office will contain bookshelves containing works recommended by certain professors, giving students a peaceful place to enrich their education.

Not to mention, the space itself is more comfortable and less claustrophobic than the current lounge. There are also more windows and a better view. The lounge will be both cozy, and central.

The new Math Center also faces a few distinct advantages to moving to its current location. Though many worked countless hours getting the Math Center to be operational in the UC only for it to be moved immediately to Shilling, now it is only feet away from the Math Department.

“I also think it’s nice that the new math center, the tutor center, is right next to the math lounge and all of the professors’ offices are in there.” Krull commented. “If I’m in there as a tutor and I need help with my homework, I can sneak out and head over into the math offices and ask a professor, which is nice because that’s what we do in there when we are not tutoring. Everything ‘math-y’ is in one area, now.” Krull said.

The Math Center and the Career Center have been open and running since the beginning of the semester or before. The Honors Lounge is still undergoing a few renovations, but it should be completed in the next few weeks. When it is, it should increase the opportunity for students to excel in the Honors Program.