Student organizations interested in obtaining space in the renovated Student Union Building have until 5 p.m. Friday to apply for one of about 20 new offices planned for its basement.
As of Monday, six organizations had turned in applications for the offices, according to SUB office spokesperson Shellie Stong.
The offices will be in a student organization area of the basement, which will feature a main entrance; seating and group meeting areas; and offices for the Associated Students of UNM, the Graduate and Professional Student Association and the Student Activities Center. Each will include a desk, chairs, a table, a file cabinet and a port for telephones and computers, according to SUB Director Walter Miller.
The spaces range from 8 feet by 8 feet to 10 feet by 11 feet, said Jennifer Onuska, the SUB Space Allocation Committee chairwoman and an ASUNM senator. She said groups that just need storage space can apply for one of several secured closets also planned for the SUB.
"Both the student governments and the student groups will be all together in the same area, so they won't have to hunt down ASUNM or GPSA anymore," Onuska said.
Applicant groups will have to have an officer present at one Space Allocation Committee hearing. They are scheduled for Feb. 23, March 1 and March 2, and decisions should be issued by around April 1, she said.
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Groups won't be able to move back into the SUB until late fall 2002 at the earliest, Miller said.
"This application process is going on early so they can plan how to spend for the next fiscal year and so on," Onuska said.
Miller said construction slowed during the holidays because fewer construction workers were available than expected but that things are picking up. Crews were expected to begin actual construction on the east entrance soon, he said.
"Someone said we're making too much noise, so that's a good sign," he said.
Student Activities Director Debbie Morris said she was glad that student groups would soon be able to move out of the cramped temporary offices and cubicles in the basement of the old bookstore.
"I think it's exciting that we can offer organizations something that they deserve - a nice space," she said. "That was the trouble in the old (SUB), the spaces weren't very nice."
Morris said the committee would look at the groups' service to campus, number of members and level of activity when assigning space. She added that she wasn't worried that only six organizations have applied so far.
"On Friday at five, we'll get a ton of them," she said. "It's still difficult to look at that space and say, 'Oh, I could have an office there next year.'"
Other Space Allocation Committee members include student Cotye Julian, associate professor Ernest Lange, ASUNM Sen. Rosalyn Nguyen and GPSA representative Mandy Marshall.
Engineering student Richard Talley, a member of the Association for Non-Traditional Students, said he was looking forward to the day the group could move its lounge and computer lab out of its tiny office in the old bookstore.
"It's been a necessary compromise, we're better off than a lot of the organizations - everybody's had to take a smaller space for the SUB renovation," he said. "But it'll be nice to get out of this space."
Group treasurer Linda Friesen said the association was able to keep most of its 60 to 70 members, despite being stuck in what they affectionately call a "dungeon."
"The new office won't be like this, it will have light and be clean and airy," she said.
Applications for office space in the new SUB are available in the Student Activities Center, Room 280, of the Student Services Building, or the SUB office, Room 225, of the old bookstore.
They are due by 5 p.m. Feb. 8 in the SUB office.
