There are some truly fantastic 5C spaces on campus. These resources which are shared by the five undergraduate colleges in our consortium are made for studying, making art, and building community.
Hands down, my favorite of these spaces is the Hive. The hive is a creative building set aside for students to create art, to build things, to express themselves. It’s a beautiful space that’s filled with student art on the walls, that is constantly changing. The building is divided into different rooms to support different endeavors. There’s the Toolbox, a woodworking and metal work shop. There’s the Vault which is a dimply let, comfortable study (nap) space. There’s the Print Lab, for silkscreen printing, the Sound Booth for audio recoding, and my favorite, the Sewing Shed. All these spaces and their tools are freely open to students, and often materials are provided too. The Hive stands by the principles of cultivating generative mindsets, creating a platform to amplify voices, and nurturing connections. I have spent so many wonderful afternoons and weekends exploring all the tools and spaces the hive has to offer.
One of our most important 5C spaces is the Honnold Mudd Library. The library is not just a place for us to study, and subtly sleep in around finals time, but a really wonderful place for getting access to all sorts of resources. They have great study spaces and group meeting spaces that you can reserve for your meeting. The fourth floor is almost totally silent and for intense studying time, while the second floor has a lot of chatting and people doing work together. The librarians are a fantastic resource and way more people should take advantage of them. The different librarians at Honnold Mudd specialize in different sectors of research. For a recent statistics project, I spoke to the Data Librarian, who helped us sources data sets for old US censuses. While I think our own Scripps library, Dennison, is the best place for cozy studying and good vibes, Honnold Mudd library has all the resources you could ask for to get help with studying, research, and assignments.
There is going to be a new exciting 5C space built soon! Plans are currently being finalized for a 5C student center right next to Honnold Mudd Library in the center of the five campuses. They’ve been taking student wishes and ideas into account. For the last two years we’ve had architects and designers coming to student spaces and asking us what we’d like to see in a new student center. They’ve asked for our opinions on study spaces, cafes, meeting areas, creative spaces. I’m graduating this year, so I won’t be here to see it, but I’m so excited for students across the 5Cs to have this space just for them right in the middle of campus.