Johns Hopkins University has announced plans to construct a student center on its Homewood campus in Baltimore.
The university says the planned facility will satisfy a longtime need for a true student center.
"As the needs of our student body have evolved, so has the desire for a different and dedicated student center taken hold," President Ronald J. Daniels wrote in a message to the Hopkins community. "This will be a new kind of space for us—one that is not academically focused, but entirely social by design. … It will be a site to which everyone lays equal claim and from which everyone benefits."
The future student center will be situated at the intersection of 33rd and Charles streets and serve as a welcoming entrance to the Homewood campus.
The new building will be erected in an area that now includes the Mattin Center, which opened in 2001 as a home for the visual and performing arts on campus.
Initial estimates suggest that the project could be completed by the end of summer 2024.
"I'm very excited about the impact this facility will have on the student experience," says Kevin Shollenberger, vice provost for student affairs. "The addition of a university student center to the Homewood campus will serve as a game-changer for our students, who have long noted the need for a space that promotes relaxation, socialization, and interaction with friends outside of studying."
As for what shape the new student center will take and what it will contain, those determinations will be made with input from the university community, including students. An advisory committee with student members will play a key role in the multiyear process, Daniels says.
"We are truly grateful to the many generations of students—including this one—who have advocated for such a space," Daniels wrote in his university-wide message. "Today, you can say that your legacy, your gift, has been not only to add your voices to that call, but to have had that call answered."
