By Melissa Martinez

Staff Writer

As the building of the University Student Union advances, plans for hours of operation, who will occupy the building and the many features of the building are being released. Students will have much to look forward to at the “heartbeat” of campus such as sustainability, new food and hangout areas.

The USU is scheduled to be open and used for spring semester 2014 following a soft-opening. The grand-opening of the building is scheduled for April 2014.

According to the project goals, USU should “be the ‘heartbeat’ of campus, [and] make all students feel welcome.” The building is intended to develop campus life, foster campus loyalty and to build a sense of community.

The process of planning the building of the USU was created by a selection committee, consisting of people from campus, students and the chancellor’s office. They selected the architect company that would build and design the building and provide a fun, vibrant space for students with various formal and informal gathering spaces.

The design vision stated, “The Cal State San Marcos University Student Union shall be an open and welcoming center of activity for the campus now and in the future. The University needs a ‘living room’ and the USU will be the campus community center for socialization, casual interaction and scheduled meetings, food and beverage service, programmed activities, student organizations and social justice centers.”

The USU will also be the home of four food components. Sodexo recently signed a 20-year contract with the university to take over camps catering as well as the Starbucks, located in Kellogg Library. In the union, there will be a Jazzman’s Cafe & Bakery with a coffee-house style atmosphere located in the east pavilion, a large convenient store and a Jamba Juice smoothie station.

Along with a Panda Express located in the USU, there will be three Sodexo-brand food distributions, each of different taste. The first is World of Wings Cafe, an American-grill type, a SubConnections, much like Subway, and Wholly Habaneros which is similar to Chipotle and Baja Fresh. Sodexo plans to provide optional meal-plans for students that can be used at each food vendor.

The school values sustainability and ensuring a economically healthy aspect of building activity for the USU. One such feature is the green roof that will sit on the second-floor of the 90,000-square-foot ballroom. The green roof will provide shade and prevent the ballroom from getting too hot in the summer and avoid running the air conditioner. Since half of the roof is green, the other half will provide seating and dining places for students to hang out, eat, study or watch a program from afar. There will also be photovoltaic panels on the roof to capture energy from the sun and reduce the cost of operating the building. The building will be a LEED Gold Building, said Sara Quinn, Director of The Clarke and University Student Union, which is the second-highest level of sustainability for a building.

Along with sustainability, the USU has many features that aren’t found on most campuses; one of which is gender-neutral bathrooms.

The bathrooms “are for gender-neutral folks so they don’t have to trek all the way across campus to go to the one bathroom in which they feel safe and comfortable. That is a feature that we said is non-negotiable for us,” Quinn said.

The gender-neutral bathrooms will be throughout the building, on the first and fourth floor as well as next to the social justice centers.

“There is also an additional single-stall, gender-neutral restroom with a foot-wash in it for our Muslim students, right next to our spiritual lounge. We tried to make it as multi-purpose as possible,” said Quinn.

Since The Clarke currently serves as the University Student Union for programming, the USU Advisory Board/Clarke Activities Team will transition from The Clarke to the USU to utilize features of the building such as the amphitheater and pavilion. However, programming at The Clarke will continue, focusing on fitness and recreation.

Student positions will also be available once the USU opens. Along with positions in the social justice centers and food distributions, the USU will hire around 100-150 students assistants to work.  The hours of operation are tentative but will most likely be 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, with plans to close earlier on Friday and be open on Saturday and closed on Sunday.

For more information regarding the USU or to watch a 3-D video of the building, please visit csusm.edu/pdc/Projects_Construction/25.USU.html