Summer has descended upon campus, but the student Union renovations will not take a vacation.Work continues on all four levels of the building, but students can expect all normal services to be available, according to Student Union Director Shirley Plakidas.While no services will be lacking, the summer will mainly be used to prepare for the fall, with most of the future attractions in the Union finishing up at the end of the summer semester or early in the fall semester.The ground floor corridor near the lower-level entrance facing the Parade Grounds is the main focus for construction currently, which has caused that entrance to close. Plakidas said the area and the entryway should be completed by the end of June.Two new retail stores will lease space in the northwest end of the Union beginning in the fall. An optical store — complete with a full-time optometrist — and Kaplan Testing Services will open in early fall.A major question mark for the Union’s future will be the availability of a postal service, Plakidas said. The USPS is set up in a temporary building off Raphael Semmes Road while the Union is unavailable.”We certainly want to have a postal service in the Union when it is complete, and we hope that the USPS will put in a bid to continue their service on campus,” Plakidas said. “But there has been word from students that the USPS contacted them to inform them their boxes will soon be unavailable.”Plakidas said the Mini Tiger Lair — which is set up with limited food services while the Tiger Lair undergoes extensive remodeling — will be open on a limited schedule during the summer, much like during the spring semester.”For summer, the hours will largely depend on what level of traffic we anticipate in the Union for the day,” Plakidas noted. “[The Mini Lair] will usually be open during the lunchtime hours, especially on days when there will be orientation groups on campus.”Plakidas also said the staff of the Union Barbershop is eager to move in to the shop’s new location in the northwest corner of the building near the Live Oak Lounge.”The staff there has set up shop in three different temporary places during the renovations, so they are excited to finally get into their new place, and we hope that the move will happen in the very near future,” Plakidas said.Plakidas said the Union Theater should be completed sometime early in the fall, with a state-of-the-art sound system in place to ensure optimum sound for all events.”The summer allows us more flexibility in what areas of the building we can close because of the decreased foot traffic,” she said.–
Contact Chris Abshire at [email protected]