2008 Woodie Awards
Recreation center still lacking many student visitors
The Longshoremen's Hall has a crowd during events, but lacks students during the day.
Daniel Nash
Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Students looking for recreation between
classes can look no farther than the Longshoremen's Hall-literally, but not many
are doing that. No more than ten students
ventured up to the hall and took advantage
of the facility on a recent Tuesday afternoon.
"The number of different students isn't
huge," Tyler Curley, student manager of
the hall said. "But we have regular students
that come in every day."
On that Tuesday afternoon only two of
the present students were taking advantage
of the hall's activities, playing table tennis in the adjacent room. So why aren't more students taking advantage of the recreation center, which represents a sizable investment of their tuition? One explanation may be that its distant location precludes knowledge of its existence.
"So it's the one way up on the tip-top
and its purple?" freshman Annemarie Humphres
said. "No, I don't hang out there, but
I've seen signs for it around campus."
Humphres said she hasn't visited Longshoremen's Hall since her freshmen orientation, an event that focused on academic opportunity rather than the array of features in the building.
While the hall is the official recreation
center of the University of Washington Tacoma,it is also the northernmost structure
on campus, separated from the academic buildings by Court 17 apartments.
The Longshoremen's Hall was opened to students on March 26 last year, featuring with a number of amenities like video games and sporting equipment. Visitors can sign in and borrow an Xbox or Playstation 3 title from the check-out desk, or wander upstairs to the computer room and log in to World of Warcraft. Alternatively, if patrons want to get physical, they can check out a basketball and play on one of four half-courts.
Many patrons come to the hall to attend events hosted by student organizations, such as the South Asian Students Association, which rented out the building for its Diwali Night event last quarter.
"Right now we have half-recreation center, half-event space, since Philip Hall isn't built yet," Curley said.
Philip Hall, formerly referred to as the Dawg Shed, will become UWT's official assembly hall once construction is complete. When the hall is completed, a prime function of the Longshoremen's Hall will be removed and transferred to the new hall.
Maps of the property owned by the university show a campus that, if it were to become fully developed, would place Longshoremen's Hall central to the area. But until that happens, some students find the Longshoremen's Hall remains a degree disconnected from main campus and just too far away.
classes can look no farther than the Longshoremen's Hall-literally, but not many
are doing that. No more than ten students
ventured up to the hall and took advantage
of the facility on a recent Tuesday afternoon.
"The number of different students isn't
huge," Tyler Curley, student manager of
the hall said. "But we have regular students
that come in every day."
On that Tuesday afternoon only two of
the present students were taking advantage
of the hall's activities, playing table tennis in the adjacent room. So why aren't more students taking advantage of the recreation center, which represents a sizable investment of their tuition? One explanation may be that its distant location precludes knowledge of its existence.
"So it's the one way up on the tip-top
and its purple?" freshman Annemarie Humphres
said. "No, I don't hang out there, but
I've seen signs for it around campus."
Humphres said she hasn't visited Longshoremen's Hall since her freshmen orientation, an event that focused on academic opportunity rather than the array of features in the building.
While the hall is the official recreation
center of the University of Washington Tacoma,it is also the northernmost structure
on campus, separated from the academic buildings by Court 17 apartments.
The Longshoremen's Hall was opened to students on March 26 last year, featuring with a number of amenities like video games and sporting equipment. Visitors can sign in and borrow an Xbox or Playstation 3 title from the check-out desk, or wander upstairs to the computer room and log in to World of Warcraft. Alternatively, if patrons want to get physical, they can check out a basketball and play on one of four half-courts.
Many patrons come to the hall to attend events hosted by student organizations, such as the South Asian Students Association, which rented out the building for its Diwali Night event last quarter.
"Right now we have half-recreation center, half-event space, since Philip Hall isn't built yet," Curley said.
Philip Hall, formerly referred to as the Dawg Shed, will become UWT's official assembly hall once construction is complete. When the hall is completed, a prime function of the Longshoremen's Hall will be removed and transferred to the new hall.
Maps of the property owned by the university show a campus that, if it were to become fully developed, would place Longshoremen's Hall central to the area. But until that happens, some students find the Longshoremen's Hall remains a degree disconnected from main campus and just too far away.
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