Many underclassmen never saw it. Some are still awaiting its return.

But the Tate game room will not be coming back, said Willie Banks, director of student affairs, in a phone interview Thursday.

“The game room was actually never in the original plans for Tate II,” Banks said.

He said the recently opened sports lounge – the Dawg Pen – in the Tate expansion will be replacing the original game room, which was formerly located on the third floor of the Tate Student Center.

The Tate game room included pool, ping-pong, hockey tables and gaming systems. Banks said the Dawg Pen will be receiving gaming systems, such as Xboxes, Playstations and Wiis in the next month to go along with the various flat screen TVs around the lounge.

“A lot of campuses don’t have game rooms anymore,” Banks said. “There’s been a proliferation of game rooms made up of only gaming systems across the country.”

Brent Ball, a junior from Alpharetta, said he wished the original game room would be brought back.

“I understand there was a decline in the number of students who used it, but it would be nice to have it back,” Ball said. “I used the pool tables in there a lot my freshman year.”

But Banks said the Dawg Pen will not include arcades or pool tables.

He said the drop in the number of students who used the game room contributed to the decision to not include it in the plans for the Tate expansion. But ultimately, the decision was based on the amount of room that would be available for use by other organizations such as WUOG Radio, the University’s radio station.

Zachary Slape, a sophomore from Loganville, said he does not care that there will no longer be a game room in Tate. Slape said he uses Tate only when he has to eat or study.

“I would like there to be more study rooms. I thought that’s why they built Tate II. I thought it was supposed to provide more study space,” Slape said.

“If I want to play Xbox, I can go home to play my own.”