After many years of sitting empty, plans between ASWSU and the Graduate and Professional Association (GPSA) are in the works to revamp the former Bookie into a customized student center.

“We heard a lot from students that they wanted the old Bookie turned into something. They questioned why it was sitting there doing nothing,” said Jared Powell, ASWSU president. “Over the last year or so, we’ve seen the CUB being even more utilized and the Rec being highly utilized, and we wanted to bring a space where we could kind of take a little bit of the stress off our other student centered areas.”

Following the #DearWSU campaign last fall, there had been a large amount of student input requesting more student space on campus.

“We decided to take all the information that we got from the student body and put that into a proposed campaign to renovate the old Bookie into something new that has a lot of new features and aspects,” said Carleen Othman, ASWSU director of communication.

Currently, ASWSU and GPSA are merely spreading awareness about the potential for a new student center. Plans for its construction will not be concrete until it is approved by the ASWSU Senate and, subsequently, voted on by the student body.

“It will only happen based upon a student vote to support the program,” said Terry Boston, associate vice president of student affairs.

If approved, the student center will operate as a multifunctional building.

“What’s really unique about this opportunity is that it is actually consolidating study space, hang out space, and recreation space, and having food service all in one building,” Boston said.

Some more unusual features, such as nap pods, are also a possibility.

“We’re going to try and make that happen,” Othman said.

Being situated close to College Hill, the building will likely be more accessible to many students on campus.

“I think it’s a perfect location to really serve,” Powell said. “It’s almost a little bit more of a student community.”

Additionally, plans for a fitness center in the building will not only assist the heavily utilized Recreation Center, but will also be more conveniently located.

“For a lot of students, the rec center is a bit of a ways away,” Powell said. “So we’ll bring a little bit of the rec center over, a lot of cardio, weight equipment, things like that. Maybe even some multipurpose rooms for classes like yoga or Zumba.”

Voting will take place starting March 10 and end the following evening. The new Bookie will open in January 2017. For more information regarding the new student center, students can visit aswsu.wsu.edu or gpsa.wsu.edu.