As the campus bookstore moves across Highland Road into a newer, bigger location, it will leave behind a vacant space in the Student Union.
But it won’t be empty for long.
The vacancy will be filled by the Olinde Career Center in summer 2013, as long as construction goes as planned.
Career Services’ current home is the basement of Coates Hall and the first floor of Patrick F. Taylor Hall. The new center will bring Career Services and its employees together in a unified and central location for the first time since its founding in 1985.
There aren’t many walk-ins at either of Career Services’ two current locations, which happen to be on opposite sides of campus. Career Services workers are hoping the new center will be a friendlier location.
“One student referred to our Coates location as a ‘dungeon’ because it is in a dreary basement,” said Mary Feduccia, director of Career Services.
Feduccia said she hopes the development of the career center will change students’ drab perception of Career Services and encourage them to explore the options available to them.
Amenities at the Olinde Career Center will include a smart classroom equipped with audiovisual tools, voice conferencing, LAN connection and wireless Internet access; 21 interview rooms for one-on-one interviews with employers; an employer lounge; a multimedia library of career materials and room to accommodate global and domestic interviews via teleconferencing.
“We hope that the quality of the career center and its central location will enhance our services to students,” said Trey Truitt, associate director of employment services. “We hope students will be more apt to stop by and see what is going on.”
Constructing the career center relies on the donations of Career Services’ corporate partners Shell Oil, CenterPoint Energy and other companies that often recruit LSU students, as well as individuals who support Career Services, such as the Olinde family, for whom the career center is named.
“There will be no additional student fees to fund the career center,” Feduccia said. “We exist to serve the students, not for the students to serve us.”
The idea for a new career center was formed as a result of former Chancellor Mark Emmert’s introduction of the flagship agenda in 2003.
“We found that almost all of our peer institutions had brand new career centers or were in the process of building new facilities,” Feduccia said. ”We knew we had to compete.”
Feduccia said she hopes the career center will also entice more employers to visit and recruit from the University and keep current employers returning each year.
“It is about the perception of quality,” Truitt said. “After seeing the new career center, employers will realize the investment that was made in the University and its students.”
 
____ Contact Lea Ciskowski at [email protected].