Students in the College of Health and Human Development on the University Park campus now have a place in Henderson Building where they can study, check e-mail, or meet up with friends. Room 10 Henderson Building has undergone a large-scale renovation and has been converted into the Hintz Family Student Center.
“The Hintz Family Student Center is a place that students can call their own, where they can work and relax before, after, and between classes,” said Nan Crouter, Raymond E. and Erin Stuart Schultz dean of the College of Health and Human Development.
The center has enough tables, chairs and study space to accommodate between 80 and 90 students at any given time. Students also have access to a kitchen with a refrigerator and microwave, and a projector that works in conjunction with one of the center’s walls (coated with a reflective paint technology that allows the wall to be used as a giant screen). Part of the student center was designed as a small conference area, which includes pendant lighting and a long table.
The center was developed by the architecture firm Bolhin Cywinski Jackson, which conducted student focus groups to find out what students would use most in a place that they could call their own. As a result, the architects added computers and printers into the design, as well as more study space.
“There’s really no student-centered area in Henderson Building,” said Crouter. “With so much of HHD in the building or nearby, it only makes sense to dedicate this space to students.”
“The current student-oriented areas available on campus are extremely overcrowded and noisy, and they do not have private and intimate settings like the newly renovated student center will have," said human development and family studies student Michelle Green. "I believe it will be a miniature version of the HUB, directly impacting HHD students.”
Students can stop by at their leisure or they have the option to reserve the center for student organization meetings and other gatherings. HHD students interested in reserving the student center can contact Gloria Williams-Hodgin at gjr2@psu.edu. Students interested in reserving the center in the evenings or on weekends must have a faculty or staff sponsor.