DSU to spend $250K renovating first-floor SUB room

The Dalhousie Student Union has approved $250,000 to renovate the space behind the Student Union Building’s front desk. 

The renovations are intended to turn the area into a space students and societies can book for meetings and other events. It’s one of five recent SUB reno projects, with a total approved budget of nearly $717,000.

Anton Kredl, DSU vice-president of finance and operations, says the new project’s timeline is “really up in the air,” but they hope for construction to start late in the winter semester and be finished over the summer. 

The room is currently a small study space with booths and tables, as well as windows facing Seymour Street.

Kredl says the union expects to make back the cost in seven or eight years from fees non-student groups will pay to use the space — student societies will be able to book it for free like other SUB spaces. He says the DSU is not expecting the renovations to interfere with students using the rest of the SUB.

“We’re always looking to improve our rooms for students to use,” Kredl says. “We really want the students to see that the SUB is constantly evolving and changing.”

The budget for this renovation was approved at a council meeting in July of this year.

At the same meeting, just under $42,000 was approved to upgrade the seating in the first-floor lounge area of the SUB, which is still ongoing. 

Over the summer, the DSU completed a full $200,000 renovation to the White Box space, the room next to the Loaded Ladle and replaced the floor in the McInnes Auditorium with an approved budget of up to $150,000. 

Also ongoing is the installation of a digital sign outside the SUB, approved over the summer for $75,000.

The money for the renos comes through the DSU’s set renovations fund built into fees paid through students’ tuition.

“That’s one of the positives of the room. It’s not just that we’re ‘dumping’ 250,000 dollars into a room which students can use, we’re also going to make that money back,” says Kredl. 

Kredl says after the room’s fees pays off its cost, in seven to eight years, its income will go into the operational budget, which covers all the unions day-to-day expenses, like wages, events and bursaries.

Camden Wrobel, a second-year commerce student, looks forward to the new space. 

“Those meeting spaces are very beneficial considering that Dal has so many different clubs,” says Wrobel, who is a member of the Dalhousie Investment Society and the Dalhousie Golf Club.

Kredl says the new renovations will offer a new type of space for students in the SUB.  

“A lot of our spaces in the SUB are on the higher floors for students to book; they’re kind of tucked away, so with the glass front it’ll be sort of a unique meeting space for students to use and enjoy.”