New WSU Building Consolidates Services

Washington State University has added a new $16 million building to campus, combining functions that formerly sent students trekking from one end of campus to the other.

An open house will be held Sept. 5 for the 85,000-square-foot Lighty Student Services Building, named after university benefactors Phil and June Lighty.

“To say that the Lighty building was a long-awaited addition would be pretty much an understatement,” said WSU President Sam Smith.

Why? Here’s a hypothetical situation: a student, arriving to register for classes, discovers that the university put a hold on the registration for financial or academic reasons.

To get the problem squared away, the student would have to go to four or possibly five buildings across campus, collecting receipts, forms, stamps of approval, before returning to the registration center.

Now, admissions, financial aid, counseling and academic advising are all in the new building.

“This is, in essence, one-stop shopping,” said K.J. “Gus” Kravas, vice provost for student affairs.

“Students tend to take more advantage of services that are more centrally located and more personable,” said Al Jamison, director of the Student Advising and Learning Center at WSU.

The new four-story brick building adjoins the French Administration Building, connected by a glassed enclosed atrium. The atrium, Smith said, is intended to encourage interaction of college students, staff and faculty.

“We want to break down that sense of isolation and separatism,” he said.

The design helps make the administration building less intimidating, said Matt Caires, president of Associated Students of Washington State University. He said students used to feel “the only time they ever belonged there was to register or pay their bills.”

Caires is also optimistic the building will speed things up.

“We used to have six-hour waits to get financial aid,” he said. “We hope that will be alleviated this year.”

Construction began in 1994.

, DataTimes