College Can Be Fun: 

A Proposal for a Brand-New State of the Art Student Center 

Date: October 16, 2024 

Team Name:  The Gearheads 

Team Members:

 Mohammed Farhanuddin, 

Damien Fisher, 

Alex Humala, 

Nathan Ramrattan

Introduction 

How many times did you visit the student center this semester? If we could guess, it would be at most 4 times a month. The current CCNY campus lacks an engaging student center; it focuses primarily on academia. Students come to campus for their required classes and if given an online option they would most likely choose that. There isn’t much for them to do on campus. Students find themselves just staying at the library or cafeteria to fill the long gaps between classes. The City College of New York needs a new state-of-the-art student center full of inclusive activities to improve their self-esteem and grades.  

Fig 1: Charts on Frequency of Visits on current Student Center

Fig 2: Graph on purpose of student centers

There are far too many reasons why any given successful campus has an engaging student center. To prove our point, we surveyed students currently enrolled in the city college for in person classes and the results speak for themselves. As seen on Figure 1 below, over 50% of students we surveyed claimed to almost never visit our current student center. As seen on Figure 2 below, the majority of students hold the opinion that a student center should be a place to socialize, relax, and study. To further learn what students want in the student center, you can refer to our appendix section. 

Many scholarly articles support the idea of an engaging student center. An engaging student center will only boost the morale of a student and up their grades. According to Ashley Davis in her thesis paper, “The Effects That Spaces and Places of Campus Have on The Effects That Spaces and Places of Campus Have on Undergraduate Students,” student centers bring more students to campus and keep them involved throughout the day, even beyond classwork. This thesis is backed by Stephanie Lezotte, Ph.D., Assistant Dean, School of Graduate Studies of Rowan University. She says that students feel a sense of belonging and importance to the cause. In fact, when budget cuts lost the jobs of the staff working in student centers, students were less inclined to stay involved on campus. These centers also add jobs for staff as well. Students felt a sense of belonging and their grades went up during the years there were more activities in student centers. Davis says It’s a place for networking where students can depend on each other for better grades. 

Action Plan  

After Surveying 100 students it was clear that most students don’t even go to the current student center and this issue needed to be addressed. The student center we built consists of 4 floors (A basement with 3 upper levels). There are different kinds of food in the food court including convenient foods as well as healthier options based on the results of the survey. There are also vending machines located on each floor, one of which has healthy food options like the vending machines on the second floor of the NAC. This student center is located where Wingate currently is, and each floor is 6,000 Sq Ft. The Student Hub is located where Wingate currently is. 

Construction Schedule

Year: 2024-2027
Phase	Task Table	Start Date		Finish Date	Duration
1	Pre-Demolition Preparation
1.1	Permits and Approvals	10/18/24		11/1/24	14
1.2	Utility Disconnection	11/1/24		11/8/24	7
1.3	Asbestos and Hazardous Material Abatement	11/1/24		11/22/24	21
2	Demolition of the Old Building
2.1	Demolition	11/23/24		12/14/24	21
2.2	Debris Removal	12/12/24		1/9/25	28
3	Site Preparation for New Construction
3.1	Soil Testing and Foundation Planning	1/9/25		2/6/25	28
3.2	Site Grading and Leveling	2/1/25		2/15/25	14
3.3	Utility Reconnection	2/12/24		2/26/25	14
4	New Building Construction Process
4.1	Project Planning and Budgeting	2/20/25		3/12/25	20
4.2	Final Design and Architectural Planning	3/8/25		4/27/25	50
4.3	Additional Permits and Approvals	4/25/25		5/9/25	14
5	Design
5.1	Architectural Design	5/9/25		6/4/25	26
5.2	Structural and Engineering Design	6/5/25		8/4/25	60
5.3	Material Selection	7/7/25		8/16/25	40
6	Pre-Construction Preparation
6.1	Hiring Contractors	8/16/25		9/16/25	31
6.2	Site Preparation	9/10/25		9/18/25	8
6.3	Site Layout	9/18/25		9/25/25	7
6.4	Foundation Planning	9/25/25		10/2/25	7
7	Construction Phase
7.1	Framing	10/3/25		2/12/26	132
7.2	Roofing	2/12/26	4/5/26	52
7.3	Exterior and Interior Walls	2/13/26		5/20/26	96
7.4	Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing (MEP) Installation	5/20/26		9/27/26	130
7.5	Insulation and Drywall	9/28/26		11/27/26	60
7.6	Finishes	11/20/26		1/22/27	63
8	Post-Construction
8.1	Final Inspections	1/24/27		2/15/27	22
8.2	Punch List	2/15/27		4/16/27	60
8.3	Landscaping and Exterior Work	2/20/27		4/24/27	63
8.4	Handover to Owner	4/26/27		5/10/27	14
9	Maintenance and Operations
9.1	Building Management	5/10/27		Ongoing	∞
9.2	Facility Use	5/10/27		Ongoing	∞

Pricing 

Items/Equipment	Cost per unit	Quantity	Total cost
Lunch Table with chairs	$1,600.00	18	$28,000
Couches	$1,500.00	18	$27,000
Baseket ball court	$12,400.00	1	$12,400.00
Computers	$800.00	13	$10,400.00
Concels (PS5 cuz its better)	$500.00	5	$2,500.00
Tv 50inch	$250.00	5	$1,250.00
Gym	$826,500.00	1	$826,500.00
Bathrooms	$35,000.00	4	$140,000.00
Locker rooms	$500,000.00	2	$1,000,000.00
Locker room showers	$15,000.00	2	$30,000.00
Square foot by floor (6,000 sqft)	$596.00	4	$3,576,000.00
Construction per sqft	$870.00	24,000 sq ft	$20,880,000.00
Total			$26,534,050.00

Cost and Benefits  

The project will end up costing $5,654,050 in total. Beginning with the four floors, we determined that each floor would have 6,000 total square feet, costing $596 per square foot, according to Autodesk (2024, July 2). Cost per square foot for commercial building; the cost per square foot to construct a university facility is $596.  The gym and locker room, together with a total of $1,868,900, are the second most expensive component. We included this since, according to the results of our poll, more than half of those who participated wanted a basketball court and gym. By providing kids with a healthy workout, these add-ons help the community. Students also chose the peaceful location since it allowed them to concentrate and finish their academics. Ten thousand four hundred dollars was the total cost of the thirteen pieces of equipment.  

Meet the Team: 

• Farhanuddin, Mohammed, better known as Farhan, has a bachelor’s degree in political science and is currently on path to earn a second bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the City College of New York. He works in aircraft maintenance. He’s good at troubleshooting and reading manuals and instructions both from manufactures along with engineers, particularly ER/A’s or Engineering Revision Authorization. He is particularly good with tools and electronic devices. He is also great in the Microsoft Office platform. His interests are in fixing things, troubleshooting, being creative with arts and crafts, making presentations, excel files for budgeting, and traveling the world by road or aid. He is open to learning and engaging himself in anything with mechanics.  

• Fisher, Damien is a second-year transfer student from SUNY Farmingdale studying mechanical engineering. Regarding education, it is his first degree, however, he went to Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment for high school, where he took a college science class through Medgar Evars College. He’s also accumulated college credits through training in the Army National Guard. In terms of his career, he would like to get a job using his mechanical engineering degree and progress in the Army. He’s currently a Specialist in the Army and will become a Sergeant next year and he’ll either progress further as a noncommissioned officer or become an Officer. He also works at Panera Bread and is in the process of becoming a team lead. Qualities he would use to describe himself are hard-working, honest, punctual, and reliable. At Panera and in the Army, He is used to being relied on which he doesn’t mind because it shows that he’s dependable. He is qualified to use an M4 as well as drive a HMMWV and LMTV (larger truck). He’s interested in trying new things, meeting new people, watching lots of movies, and making memories with friends. 

• Humala, Alex, is a second-year college student majoring in Mechanical Engineering at The City College of New York. Alex’s characteristics are Adaptable and Versatile due to his background. Alex has experience in the construction field where he attended a trade school for plumbing. Alex attains skills like reading technical drawings, knowledge of mechanical systems, and problem-solving. Alex had worked in a plumbing supply shop and communicated with various types of people. 

• Ramrattan, Nathan came from a small island called Trinidad and Tobago. He is currently a second-year student at the City College of New York studying electrical engineering. He used to help his dad out in the family business where they worked for little Debbie. It was a lot of physical work, and he did that from when he was a baby to 16 years of age. He is currently working at a swimming school where he teaches children how to swim. He has been doing this for about 3 months. He is very creative and loves to find new ways of doing his favorite hobbies. He is also a quick thinker, which helps him out in my work or problems that need to be addressed right away. He can adapt himself to help other people or make other people feel safe, especially at work where you have kids that aren’t comfortable with being with a stranger in the water 

Conclusion: 

In summation, students want an interactive, state-of-the-art students’ center. Our data emphasizes this idea even more so because most survey takers claim to come to the current student center almost never. With their suggestions we designed a facility that they will feel encouraged to visit and spend time in. We’ve integrated an all-in-one center within 4 levels, making it inclusive for all sorts of activities such as: sports, video games, dining, meditations, etc. Our student center will not only keep current students engaged, but it will attract more students in the future. In the long run, CCNY will become one of the most attended campuses in NYC.