Survey: Brady needs improvements
Published June 16, 2004
Brady Commons does not fit the image of an ideal student center in the eyes of a random sampling of students. In fact, Brady received a failing grade.
About 5,000 students were asked a series of questions about Brady Commons and what they would like to see improved if Brady were to be expanded. When asked to rate how well Brady Commons matched their image of an ideal student center, on a scale from 0 to 100, the building received a mean score of 51.6, according to results released by the Brady Student Commons Expansion Project Student Communications Committee.
Students want to see more outdoor seating, more space for organizations, more food options, and more seating for studying and dining, according to the survey results.
"Anybody who walks through Brady can see there's no space," committee member Matt Sokoloff said. "I was surprised by little things such as the high number of students wanting additional outdoor seating. That just shows students want a variety in seating areas. Right now we only have one general area available."
Missouri Students Association Vice President Kara Heppermann said she has spent some time in the summer looking at other college campuses, including the University of Washington in Seattle, to get ideas for Brady's expansion.
"I went with the Food Services Committee," she said. "We looked at their food court and dining hall to get an idea of what we want. We saw some really amazing things at Washington."
Sokoloff said the committee will release another survey in the fall that will seek to find out what changes students feel are most important.
"Now that we know what students want, we want to see how they prioritize what they want and what they'd be willing to pay for," he said.
In the fall, a special election will be held for students to vote on a plan for Brady's renovation, Sokoloff said. If passed, student fees would pay the part of the renovations.
The Brady referendum vote would be separate from the MSA presidential election, Sokoloff said.
"We don't want it combined because sometimes students will vote for one point on the ballot and not the other," he said. "We want to have informed students vote for it. This is an opportunity to voice opinions on a huge change on campus."
Heppermann said it is important to keep the elections separate because the expansion project shouldn't become a platform issue for presidential candidates.
"We want people voting who really have an opinion," she said. "Hopefully students will realize how important both elections are."
Members of Brady Expansion Project committees have been presenting project ideas to Summer Welcome groups and will have formal plans to share with students by the end of August, Sokoloff said.