Kyra Lieberman – In Motion Staff Writer
Coming this spring to the Daytona Beach campus, the L. Gale Lemerand Student Center will be the college’s new student hub.
The eye catching, three-story, 84,000-square-foot building sits at the main entrance of Daytona State and is one of the school’s most ambitious projects to date. Likely to open in March, the construction began in spring 2017. The need was first recognized a decade ago, followed by the proposal process, securing funding from the state and then designing, planning and building.
“We were outgrowing the old facilities and needed something newer and larger to accommodate the student body,” said Dr. Tom LoBasso, President of DSC. “This building is all about the students.”
The Student Center will hold students activities and clubs, the Library and Writing Center, cafeteria, coffee shop, meeting areas, a large event space and student study rooms. Replacing the workforce transition building, Bergengren Hall, which stood where the new Student Center is located, it will also feature individual interview rooms for practice, as well as a place for interviews when recruiters visit campus.
“It attracts students and revives the campus,” said Senior Facilities Planner Steve Selig. “The building is directly next to the Building 100, so students can apply then join other students immediately.”
Surrounded by green spaces and an outdoor lounge and eating area, the building also brings the outdoors in with large windows and skylights, giving a beautiful view of the campus. The student study rooms and meeting spaces are enclosed in glass and equipped with state-of-the-art technology. The first thing visitors see on the second floor is a game room, with several big-screen TVs and “sound umbrellas,” which funnel the sound down around the user, said Chris Wainwright Associate VP of Facilities Planning and Operations.
Along with video games, there will also be ping pong and foosball tables for students’ enjoyment. “What I’m most excited about is seeing students in action, using the space,” Dr. LoBasso said. “The main goal is to increase student engagement and use our facilities to help them be successful. It rivals the student centers of a lot of four-year-universities. We are always trying to get better.”
Student Publications, consisting of the In Motion campus newspaper and literary magazine Aeolus, will be located in a new newsroom in room 218F, complete with conference area, storage and a production office. Other student clubs will find themselves in completely new offices, after some 30 years of operating in the current Lenholdt Student Center, Building 130.
After a complete renovation, building 130 will be home to the Center for Men and Women. Back in May, Daytona State named the center in honor of longtime benefactor and former trustee L. Gale Lemerand. The naming marked a formal recognition of Lemerand’s longtime support of the college and its students, including a most recent gift of $2 million to the Daytona State College Foundation. The gift brings to more than $3 million donated to DSC by the prolific entrepreneur over the years in support of student scholarships and campus growth initiatives, becoming the college’s most generous living benefactor.
“Today, we come together to honor a man who has been a champion of higher education, not only at Daytona State College, but throughout the state of Florida,” DSC President Tom LoBasso announced at the time.
“The entire college community is deeply proud and honored to name this new student center for Mr. Gale Lemerand, whose longtime support of Daytona State already is leaving a legacy that will live on for generations and continue to serve countless students. Gale, thank you for being a friend of Daytona State College and for making such a huge difference in the lives of so many of our students, yesterday, today and well into the future.”