Directors of student unions from around the Southeastern Conference tour the new and improved Ole Miss Student Union, which hosted the directors’ annual conference July 9-12. Photo by Thomas Graning/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services
OXFORD, Miss. – The University of Mississippi hosted student union directors from all 14 Southeastern Conference institutions July 9-12, giving them a look at UM’s newly renovated and expanded Student Union.
The Ole Miss Student Union opened in 1977 as a 98,000-square-foot center of campus life. It recently underwent a $60 million expansion and renovation, adding 80,000 square feet. The project provided an enhanced dining space, five well-known food vendors, kitchens, a transit hub and a ballroom.
The updated Student Union, which opened at the end of the spring semester, greeted those who attended the conference.
“We have been looking forward to hosting our SEC friends for quite some time, and it is exciting to showcase our newly expanded and renovated Student Union,” said Bradley Baker, UM Student Union director.
“We have plenty of great opportunities for attendees to network, tour facilities on campus such as the Pavilion and South Campus Recreational Center, and Rowan Oak, and discuss current trends and issues facing student unions within the Southeastern Conference.”
UM Student Union Director Bradley Baker (left) leads a tour of his counterparts from across the Southeastern Conference of the renovated Ole Miss facility. Photo by Thomas Graning/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services
The group toured Rowan Oak, home of Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner, the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts and UM athletics facilities. They also took a double-decker bus tour of Oxford and campus, and heard a presentation about UM’s South Campus Recreation Center, which is nearing completion, and a roundtable on working with and supervising millennials and Generation Z.
Kim McMahon, director of campus life and the Russell House University Union at the University of South Carolina, had been to Ole Miss before. She was part of a team from USC that toured construction at the Student Union to find ideas for a building project back at USC.
“It’s great to be here to see the final product,” McMahon said. “It’s beautiful.”
She was impressed with the new entrance, the natural light and the multifunctional areas of the new and improved Ole Miss Student Union.
“As much as our students are engaged in the online community, there still is that need for sense of place on any campus,” McMahon said. “The beauty of that entry-level lounge where you can see your friends and sit and hang out and take a nap or be alone or together is one area I think Ole Miss got it right. I hope your students really enjoy that when they come back in the fall.”
McMahon said she took photos, asked questions and got ideas not only from Ole Miss, but from all of her colleagues across the SEC.
“We all have the same purpose,” McMahon said. “That is for us to serve students, and to also have our union be that place for community building and for connections, and oftentimes the place where lifelong connections to the institution are built.”