Gelman Full? Check Out the New Student Lounge.

Last week, Colonials Invasion, the infamous introduction of the basketball season, was accompanied by the opening of a new student lounge at 2145 G Street.  The space, previously a DJ’s Fastbreak, will be the new home of the spirit office as well as EMERG offices on the top floor.

The lounge features a big screen TV and couches, provided by the university, wireless internet access, desks and chairs for a quiet study area in the back, vending machines and a bathroom.  Students are encouraged to take advantage of the space after picking up lunch at the GW Deli and to make suggestions on how to improve the space to the staff.

The day after the official opening of the space on Thursday, Jeffrey Cohen, the Chair of the Department of English, sent an email to Helen Cannaday-Saulny, GW's Assistant Vice President for Student Academic Support Services to recommend that the lounge be made into a “funky noncorporate coffee [house] where students and faculty hang out together, go to poetry readings…”  As an inspiration for the space, Cohen suggests Busboys and Poets, an artsy café that has a location on 14th and V Streets where the English Department has been involved in some events.  

Other plans for the space have included a student-run business.  But in the meantime, students will probably appreciate having additional student lounge space as temperatures fall and winter approaches.

- Monika Wysocki