What can $60 million in student fees buy?

When it comes to the four-year Tate expansion project, the sum of its parts may be greater than the whole.

Cost of the 64-foot-wide mural connecting Tate I and Tate II: $28,945.

Cost of trash bins: $10,931.

Cost of comfortable seats, benches and ottomans: $441,035.

“We were really excited about seeing it, and you walk in and you’re like, ‘Oh. This is it. This is the big wait?’,” Kirk Stringfellow, a junior from Atlanta, said about his first visit to Tate II. “I guess it was nice, but it just seems like we already had all that. It just seems like a big space for studying, but we already had that in the [Miller Learning Center].”

Tate II opened in June, but for many students this week will be the first time they have seen the finished product.

After decades of tossing around the idea for a second phase of the Tate Student Center, the project took shape in 2005 when Willie Banks, director of Campus Life, decided it was time “to pull the trigger on trying to get the expansion.”

The project garnered student support, with a referendum vote to implement a $25 per semester student fee for 30 years. Over the years there have been various projections for the total cost and size of the building, with an initial estimate of $40 million and 100,000 square feet.

Construction stalled on the parking deck early in 2007 and the initial August 2008 project completion deadline wasn’t met. The square footage shrank from 100,000 square feet to 85,000 to 75,000 before the project finally regained the 100,000-square-foot mark last year.

“This time last year we were worried about how our budget was working, then we were able to get some savings in the budget,” said campus architect Danny Sniff. “Since it’s all student fees, it doesn’t make sense to give the money back to students – the fees have already been assessed. So we added more square footage.”

Two years after breaking ground in April 2007, construction came to a close and the new face of Tate debuted on June 1.

“I’m glad we were able to get it finished at the end of the spring semester,” Sniff said. “The hardest part was getting students supporting it, and seeing the value in it and getting their money to pay for it.”

Banks said he wanted Tate II to be the “living room of campus” – a place for students to hang out and socialize.

To meet that goal, nearly $1.4 million was spent to provide all the furnishings for the building. Banks said a committee worked for more than a year determining what would suit student needs.

“A lot of the furniture was based upon the Miller Learning Center,” he said. “There’s a lot of seating. The furniture we picked out is furniture that could be moved – that people could move into small groups if they want to have conversations with folks.”

Banks said vendors brought in furniture and Campus Life had a campaign called “Have a Seat,” where students could fill out surveys about the furniture and give their input.

Inside the expansion students will find four new dining options, offices for student organizations, a renovated Tate Theater, an expanded Print and Copy Services center, a branch of the U.S. Postal Service, a new UGACard office, study and TV lounges, meeting and conference rooms, and a 12,000-square-foot ballroom that can be divided into seven smaller rooms.

What students will not find is a game room similar to that in the old Tate.

“We found that the game room and game room attendance had declined,” Banks said. “There is definitely a population of students out there that loved the game room, but it wasn’t enough folks to keep it open.”

Instead, students will have the Dawg Pen, a space consisting of booths, two bar-height tables, dining furniture, flat screen TVs and gaming options such as Wii, Playstation and Xbox. Banks said when gaming systems were added to the old game room, more students used those systems. He said that is why those are the options being provided in the Dawg Pen, which he said should open within the next three to four weeks.

“I’m not a big gamer,” Stringfellow said. “I wish they had the stuff like the pool tables.”

The 12,000 square-foot Grand Hall replaces Georgia Hall, which was about 7,800 square feet.

“[Grand Hall] can accommodate many more people than we could have ever hoped for,” he said. “We probably could have gone bigger, but that was really a good number to work with.”

Grand Hall is available to rent for an hourly fee and can be reserved as a whole or by room, since it can be divided into seven rooms. Banks said rates are set on a tiered system so outside groups pay more than student groups.

“It’s still affordable for student groups to get in here, compared to other facilities in Athens,” he said.

Banks, who has given several tours of the facility, said he has received overwhelmingly positive feedback about the expansion.

“People love it. People are in awe of it,” he said.

But some students weren’t as enamored.

“I think it’s nice,” said Caitlin Flynn, a junior from Lawrenceville. “But I think they could have utilized the space a little better.”

Flynn said she hoped there would be more study rooms in Tate II, since those in the MLC fill up quickly.

“It’s just this huge, open space with chairs,” she said. “It’s not exactly cozy.”

Stringfellow said the increased dining options will draw him to the expansion during the fall.

“They do have a Chinese place in there, so if I ever want Chinese I could go there,” he said. “That’s probably the only reason I would use it – for the food.”

Students have about 26 years left of paying $25 per semester for the building. And there may already be plans for more renovations to the older phase of Tate.

“We can go back with other state dollars to do some renovations to improve the look and feel of the existing Tate Center.” Sniff said. “I don’t think at this point in time we are going to ask for any more student fees to do that though.”