Stevie Hernandez relaxes on the new couch in the Lion’s Den, located on the fifth floor | Photo by Bernadette Berdychowski

The newly renovated student space in The King’s College opened for students in time for the spring semester but is yet to be finished.

The seating in the library hallway was removed over the winter break due to fire code regulations and the new space located on the fifth floor is now known as the “Lion’s Den.” It includes three new tables, a couch, and leather seats.

Students were surprised to come back to school and find the new area meant for studying was missing something important for those who used electronic devices for school work.

“The only thing I don’t appreciate in this new space is the lack of charging outlets to charge my laptop and my phone,” freshman Olivia Bolling said.

Fixing the hole in the wall and adding electrical outlets is the next step for The King’s College in improving the new gathering place for students.

“We made some of the macro changes,” Dean David Leedy said. “The micro stuff is still in the works.”

This week, an electrician will be on campus to provide a price estimate for the costs of installing electrical outlets.

Alongside the developments in the Lion’s Den, The King’s College is in the process of cleaning up and making the old student space in the library hallway a more useful and interactive space by transforming it into an art gallery, Leedy stated.

Leedy believes that the King’s community has a strong “art flavor” and wants to showcase the talents of the students in the hallway.

Additions to the library will include new tables to replace the old ones and countertops with stools in the space outside where the tables were before. The new countertops provide more space for emergency situations thus meeting fire code regulations.

The library hallway on the sixth floor was stripped of the tables to meet fire code regulations. The school is working on replacing them with countertops and stools | Photo by Bernadette Berdychowski

The completion date of these projects is yet to be determined.

While the school is working towards improvement, students are having mixed reactions over the new space.

“I can’t study here,” said sophomore Mike Forcella. “It’s a little crammed.”

Forcella does not like the annoyance from the swivel chairs attached to the tables while Bolling believes that they are “really fun” seats to sit in while studying.

“I like it. It’s a much more relaxed feel than the previous seating areas we had. It’s a good mix between the student union and the student library,” Bolling said.

But as the community waits for improvements, students like Forcella feel that the library hallway is “naked” and lacking the life it once had.

Micro Changes to be Made in New Student Spaces