University holds forum on gaming lounge

Following student feedback, Student Affairs and SmithGroup begin forming Pub renovation proposal

The University has announced plans to convert the Pub into an esports/gaming lounge, hosting an open forum to collect student feedback.

The project remains in its infancy, but UTD has tapped SmithGroup to do a feasibility study over the next few months on the potential scope of the renovation. February’s two open forum sessions were the beginning of SmithGroup’s exploratory process for changing the Pub into a gaming lounge similar to a scaled-up PC Café. VP of Student Affairs Gene Fitch said that the project started when they noticed students’ interest in the current esports team room on Reddit.

“I’m a lurker on Reddit, and somewhere around last fall I noticed students talking about getting into the esports room,” Fitch said. “So the project really started there with us looking at what students wanted.”

The presentation at the forum presented concepts for a few different key areas for the potential renovation. Aside from a re- ception area and the already-existing team room, SmithGroup presented concepts for a “gaming lounge” space with open seating and TVs set up to create a more casual environment, as well as a “gaming station” space containing multiple PC setups available for rent at an hourly rate. On top of this, SmithGroup principal designer Douglas Barraza said that there was space to consider an “arena” for live matches and spectating.

“I like to use the term ‘theater’, because I think of it more like a black box theater,” Barraza said. “The more we can maximize uses of those large, flexible spaces the better.”

The lounge isn’t meant to fully replace the Pub and leave no room for other clubs or non-gaming users to hang out or eat at. Fitch said that the idea was to have two main spaces: one where the general student population could hang out and eat, and one where the main PCs would be set up for hourly play. Director of the Student Union Dan Good-

After years of running the same paths, DART has redesigned its public transit offerings to improve access throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth region. UTD students stand to benefit… if they can learn to use it.

Jan. 24 marked the official launch of DARTzoom, a system-wide redesign to reduce travel times and increase direct access to destinations across Dallas and its surrounding cities. According to the initiative’s website, this involves cutting some bus stops to maximize efficiency and ramping up service overall, with bus and rail lines projected to arrive every 15 to 20 minutes on highfrequency routes.

Calvin D. Jamison, vice president of Facilities and Economic Development, said that the increase in DART services near campus will benefit students.

“The DART expansion does not directly affect the 883 Comet Cruisers… however,

Editor-in-Chief Tyler Burkhardt editor@utdmercury.com

(972) 883-2294

Managing Editor Ben Nguyen managingeditor @utdmercury.com (972) 883-2287

Copy Editor Margaret Moore copyeditor@utdmercury.com

Graphics Editor Alesandra Bell graphics@utdmercury.com

Photo Editor Anna Phengsakmueang photo@utdmercury.com

News Editor Nandika Mansingka news@utdmercury.com

Life & Arts Editor Mia Nguyen life@utdmercury.com

Opinion Editor Fatimah Azeem opinioneditor@ utdmercury.com

Web Editor Trevor Tomer web@utdmercury.com

Contributors

Danielle Bell

Charlie Chang

Adamaris Dominguez

Zaid Haq

Alexandra Ibarra

Cristina Kovacs

Angela Li

Jamie Lin

Thaovy Nguyen

Andrew Peters

Sihanya Rocha

Casey Rubio

Quinn Sherer Smrithi Upadhyayula

Corrections/ Clarifications

Bring factual errors or innacuracies to the attention of The Mercury’s staff by emailing editor@ utdmercury.com or calling (972) 8832287 and a correction will be published in this space in a future issue.