Final phase of $120M renovation of Colorado State University's student center completed

Jason Van Rossum, a 40-year-old U.S. Army veteran with three children, was working on his laptop computer at the coffee bar.

Sarah Culhane, 24, and Matt Eustice, 40, were seated at a table with two other students, drinking coffee and chatting, each with their laptops open in front of them.

Another Army veteran, Joshua James, was sitting on a sofa upstairs, with his laptop on a small table in front of him. Whenever he looked up, he had a beautiful view across campus to the foothills beyond.

Colorado State University's expanded Adult Learner and Veteran Services office, which grew from 1,800 square feet on one floor to more than 8,000 over two floors, was a key component of the final phase of Lory Student Center’s 12-year renovation. Workers were still putting a few finishing touches on the stairway inside the ALVS office Tuesday and Wednesday, but the new space has been open to students since Aug. 14, when fall classes began.

James, 27, arrived in Fort Collins with just two bags that he had flown with from San Antonio, Texas, to Denver and only got a chair for his dorm-style, off-campus apartment a few days ago.

“Having a place where I can come sit down, open something up, enjoy my morning beverage and that sort of thing, that’s nice — legitimately nice,” he said Wednesday while getting some homework done between classes in the ALVS.

Phase 3 of the Lory Student Center renovation project also included a redesign of both levels of the CSU Bookstore, the creation of an open and airy lounge on the second floor, upgrades to the University Lounge and student-run Aspen Grille, a new heating and cooling system, and gender-inclusive restrooms. The former North Ballroom on the third floor was also redesigned and renamed Never No Summer, in respect of the Indigenous peoples whose ancestral homelands encompassed Fort Collins and much of the surrounding area, CSU officials said in a news release.

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A grand opening celebration and open house of Lory Student Center’s north-end renovations, including a ribbon-cutting ceremony at noon, will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday at the student center. Tours and light refreshments will be available.

Work on the $34 million final phase, completing a $120 million revitalization of the LSC, began in the spring of 2022 with work on the first floor of the bookstore, said Mike Ellis, director of the student center. The final phase’s start was delayed exactly two years, increasing the cost by $10.5 million, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

Although several services were temporarily relocated during the project, all remained available to students. About 20,000 people pass through the student center each day, CSU officials said.

The entire revitalization project, completed in three phases beginning in 2005, was funded primarily through the sale of revenue bonds, with $5 million coming from LSC reserves, according to Ellis and an informational page on the CSU website. CSU students approved a $70 increase in student fees in April 2011 to help cover the cost once the new spaces became operational in 2014, and the CSU System Board of Governors approved Phases 2 and 3 and their financing in October 2011, Ellis said.

Phase 1, a $10 million project completed in 2007, included a south addition to the LSC and the CSU Transit Center. Phase 2, completed in 2014, included a $6 million renovation of the Lory Student Center Theatre and $70 million worth of renovations to the center, according to previous Coloradoan reporting.

Overall, 160,000 square feet of the student center, which first opened in January 1962, were renovated, and 40,000 square feet of new space added, bringing the facility’s total size to 380,000 square feet, Ellis said.

The biggest single addition in the third and final phase was the ALVS, which moved from an 1,800 square-foot office on the second floor now occupied by Off-Campus Life to its new two-story home across the hall. Those locations were chosen specifically for their visibility and access to students living off campus, just above the CSU Transit Center where Fort Collins Transfort buses, as well as buses from Denver and Greeley/Windsor, stop to drop off and pick up students, Ellis said.

Adult learners are students age 23 and older who are just beginning college, ALVS director Ben Schrader said. But the program is also designed to serve students who are also parents and even those who simply feel a little older, he said, and self-identify as adult learners.

The combined population of adult learners and military veterans or dependents attending school on their benefits at CSU, both undergraduate and graduate students, is 8,000 to 10,000, he said, noting that many of those will never use ALVS or its services. Schrader, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from CSU and a doctorate from the University of Hawaii following his service, is an Army veteran who served in Kosovo and Iraq.

“(Veterans) are a value add to our community,” he said. “They have a lot of skills, and so do adult learners. They have life experiences that they bring to the table that make them leaders on campus and great examples for the rest of the student population.”

There were about 40 students in the ALVS office at midday Tuesday and 30 or so at midday Wednesday.

Some were drinking free coffee and tea at a bar-style counter near the entrance. Others were sitting quietly, working on their laptops, at tables and in chairs and sofas in various locations on both the second and third floor. Groups gathered at tables near the kitchen, complete with two refrigerators where students can store lunches and other snacks for the day, working on laptops, talking and eating together.

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“It’s a good place to hang out,” said Culhane, a transfer student from Northwest Arkansas Community College who is majoring in Ecosystem Science and Sustainability. “There’s free coffee, which is nice, and there’s quiet study space if you actually need to focus.”

She works at the bagel shop on the first floor of the student center and uses the ALVS space to study and socialize between her classes and work shifts.

For Eustice, who had been out of school for 15 years when he started working on a bachelor’s degree in data science two years ago, ALVS provides a space where he can read, complete assignments, relax and socialize with older students like himself between classes. He’s a lot more comfortable around other nontraditional students and veterans, he said, than he is around the 18- and 19-year-olds in many of his classes.

“I live in Loveland and don’t have another class for 2 1/2 hours, so this is nice,” he said. “I had two classes this morning, and I have another one this afternoon.”

A handful of students were utilizing some of the private and small-group study areas and meeting rooms, separated by glass windows and doors. Or working on computers at one of the half-dozen or so height-adjustable workstations, including one preloaded with a large selection of programs designed to assist students with a wide-range of disabilities.

Another dozen or so students each day were hanging out in chairs and desks in a new second-floor lounge, just outside the entrance to the ALVS office.

“It’s very intentionally designed to be a pre-function space, for those students who are going, ‘Yeah, I kind of consider myself an adult learner, but I’m not sure I want to go in,” Schrader said. “They can hang out and watch it. But that lounge is an extension of the space, too.”

The ALVS also has a Veterans Administration extension office staffed at various hours, national headquarters office for the Veterans National Honor Society, outdoor lounge, a small room that partner groups can use for 1-on-1 presentations or job interviews, two conference rooms, printing services for class assignments or projects, a couple of private offices for ALVS staff, and a “pocket pantry” for the Rams Against Hunger program, where students in need can pick up food to take home. Included in that is a small area for “lightly used” school supplies that others have donated.

ALVS operates a summer program, Elevate, to ease nontraditional students’ transition to CSU by providing academic support through math and English composition instruction, social engagement opportunities and an introduction to campus resources. There’s also an expanding peer mentor program to reach a wider range of students, including a growing number of LatinX students through a partnership with El Centro.

The north-end addition was always in the 20-year master plan for the LSC, Ellis said. But the programming didn’t take shape until 2011, when campus leaders determined the priorities would be improving the building’s infrastructure and systems, organizing and highlighting student diversity programs and services and targeting growth that aligns with CSU’s land-grant mission.

“In the master plan document, we knew that the hallway would cut through here,” Ellis said, pointing through a doorway leading into the new addition. “We knew we would extend the elevator, but we didn’t know exactly what would go into the space.

“We maybe had some inkling that it would be Adult Learner and Veteran Services, but that certainly wasn’t known 20 years ago. So, I think the beauty is that the student center has changed and evolved with the changing student needs and their request for services.”

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, twitter.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Final phase of $120M renovation of CSU's Lory Student Center completed