First floor, going up
The Student Organization Center at Hilles (SOCH) should feel more like home when undergraduates return to campus this fall — that is, if home has a performance-quality audio system, high-definition, flat-screen TV, top-of-the-line gaming, Starbucks-level coffee drinks, and space in which to party or to meet with several hundred friends. Officials at the College’s Office of Student Life (OSL) say that the improvements are part of their summer effort to make the first floor more comfortable and welcoming. “You’ll walk into the building and feel like this is a student space,” said OSL’s Doug Walo, manager of the SOCH. “You’ll feel like this is a social space. It will be vibrant and active.” The renovation will cap the latest round of enhancements to undergraduate social spaces across campus. Over the past year, the Mather Multimedia Lab, the Eliot Grille activity space, the Cabot Café, and the Quad Grille lounge space in Pforzheimer...