Civitas secures space in Madsen Center

Program Director of Civitas Honors Will Swart has been advocating for a common space dedicated to honors students for several years. This fall, the and members of the Civitas Student Advisory Council (CSAC) began transitioning the university’s commuter lounge in the Madsen Center into a shared common space for Civitas students.

When Civitas was created in 2007, the Center for Western Studies (CWS) offered the program priority access to a conference-style classroom and an office on the first floor. Swart said that while the spaces work for their intended purposes, neither are specifically student-facing.

“Really what I’ve always wanted is a space dedicated to my honors students,” Swart said. “We’re grateful for the space the CWS gave us, but this is an active archive. It’s not a place where I can leave the door open and have students come study and utilize it as a kind of common room.”

Swart has advocated for the idea for years. Last spring, he wrote a program review for Civitas and discussed it with Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Jennifer Gubbels.

Part of the conversation included a five-year plan, which revisited the idea of a Civitas common room.

“[Gubbels] came back to me with a couple of different options for spaces that were becoming available or could potentially be made available on campus. We — along with Rick Tupper, who’s the director of operations — identified a few spaces in the Madsen Center,” Swart said.

The most ideal space for a Civitas common room was the commuter lounge. According to Swart, it’s an underutilized space on campus.

“I have been in and out of that room multiple times over the past several semesters and I’ve never seen more than two students in there,” he said.

Before moving ahead with their plans, CSAC put up a QR code for a Google form in the lounge to see if commuter students would be interested in sharing the space with Civitasians.

Swart said there was little reaction, which he took as a sign that the students were amenable. He expects commuters will primarily use the space during the day, so it will be free for Civitas students to study and hang out in the evening.

CSAC president senior Lilly Roberts said her vision for the common space is to unite Civitas students for both learning and connection.

“When Dr. Swart pitched it to CSAC and myself, we thought it would be a great idea,” Roberts said. “There definitely was a need. We heard from a lot of Civitas students that they really wanted a space like that.”

She also said that the goal for the space is to share it, practicing the idea of responsible citizenship that the honors program is built upon.

“We figured that if we can kind of combine Civitas with these commuter students, we’re actually using the space more effectively,” Roberts said. “We’re getting this dual use out of it.”

Space on campus is at a premium as the university grows and adds more programs. Sharing existing space is a necessity.

“What we’ve tried to do with the Civitas commons is not just prioritize one group’s needs but try to share,” Swart said. “I think that’s a sensible approach.”

Junior CSAC member Corra Yockey echoed Swart’s sentiment.

“Our hope is to partner with the commuter students and purchase things for the room that commuter students can also use because it’s not designed to be an exclusively honors space,” Yockey said.

The council is currently working on figuring out what kind of furnishings they want to make the space more functional. It already has cabinets, counter space and a sink. According to Swart, CSAC plans to upgrade the refrigerator and purchase whiteboards, modular furniture and updated light fixtures to improve the lounge’s comfortability.

“We just want to make it a bit more of a welcoming space for all our Civitas students and for our commuter students,” he said.

Time will tell if the commuter lounge will suffice as a common space. The honors program hosted a Halloween party in the lounge on Oct. 29 and found it a little cramped.

“Still, we feel really lucky to have at least access to something that students can use,” Swart said. “Our goal right now is just to use the daylights out of it and then build off of that.