Next year, Kent State students may be surprised to see the post office on the first floor of the Student Center, the FlashCard office on the lower level and more comfortable sitting areas for students.

Over the summer, work began to add more office space to the post office in the lower level of the Student Center to expand the LGBTQ Student Center and to add more comfortable furnishings to the lounge area across from the post office.

The FlashCard office, now on the first floor, will take the place of the post office in the lower level.

The move was well-received by employees and management of the two offices.

Lauren Stephenson, the assistant manager of the post office, said she was excited for the move.

“I’m just happy that we will see sunlight,” Stephenson said. “They want us to be a little more in the public eye so that we can hopefully get more business.”

Gretchen Julian, the senior director of auxiliary operations and services in the Student Center, said the move was in response to student preferences for the lower level.

“The students would really like more student organization space,” Julian said. “We started this program to reinvent the downstairs and make it a lot brighter and a lot nicer. … We took all of that survey information and (are) actually doing it.”

Expansion to the LGBTQ Student Center was completed at the end of summer in time for the beginning of the Fall 2017 semester, adding more office spaces for students in need of the services it provides.

Ken Ditlevson, the director of the LGBTQ Student Center, said the expanded office was a necessity for the amount of traffic the center sees.

“We went from a 130 square-feet space to a 1,700 square-feet office,” Ditlevson said. “The university thought we were a small community, that an office like this may serve a couple hundred people for a year. …  In actuality, we had over 5,000 contacts last year.”

However, Ditlevson said he wishes more visibility would be given to the lower level of the Student Center.

“A lot of the people I talked to didn’t even know there was a post office down here,” Ditlevson said. “There used to be some signage on the walls, but they painted over them over the summer. … I don’t know if they will be painting them, but it would be nice for a little sign (and) maybe a little rainbow flag.”

In addition to the expansion of both offices, group study rooms similar to the ones found on the second floor of the University Library and in the Integrated Sciences Building will be added to the lower level. Recreational equipment, such as pool tables and board games, will stay put.

Julian said she hopes the additions to the Student Center will begin by summer next year.

Colin Baker is the architecture/construction reporter. Contact him at [email protected].