Fresno State’s Lyles College of Engineering hosted its ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of its new student center, located inside the Engineering East Building, on Thursday.
Students and faculty gathered in the student center to hear words from various campus officials, such as the dean of the college, Ram Nunna and Fresno State President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval.
“This is like home away from home,” Jiménez-Sandoval said. “But more than anything, it’s the place where you are becoming yourselves as engineers. It’s the development of the self happening here that I’m really excited about.”
Nunna and a colleague proposed the idea of a student center in 2016. Now completed, it offers students a 2,000-square-foot space, featuring a conference room, tables with charging stations and TVs.
Construction took nine years to complete for a variety of reasons like planning, obtaining permits for construction work, raising money, the COVID-19 pandemic and other projects like the Central Utility Plant Replacement occupying resources.
In addition, the student center was an outdoor space that had to be enclosed and added to the existing building, which was very challenging to do, according to Nunna.
Despite this, he said these kinds of spaces are important for students in the college. Before, the building did not have much space for them to gather in.
“The first reason is these are the spaces where networking happens,” Nunna said. “Second is that students need to have comfortable spaces to study because a majority of our students are commuters.”
Hernan Maldonado, director of student services, emphasized the necessity of a dedicated study space for students, as the college saw record enrollment with over 1,900 students this fall semester.
Panels on the walls of the student center were detailed and tailored to represent students in the Lyles College of Engineering.
“If you look at the wallpaper, it has the Fresno State logo, Bulldogs all over,” Maldonado said. “But if you look at the intricacies of it, there’s some circuit boards, gears and more. Each panel includes depictions of each of our seven majors.”
The student center officially opened in the spring. This gave students like Dalia Sheikh, a mechanical engineering major and student speaker at the ceremony, the chance to use the space to study for finals and throughout the summer.
“This space has definitely become a favorite of mine over the past few months,” Sheikh said. “Its location in Engineering East provides an ideal environment for engineering students.”
With week two of the fall semester wrapping up, other students have begun to make use of the new student center as well.
Ruben Ramirez-Munoz, an electrical engineering major who was at the ceremony, said the center is convenient to use since his classes are in the Engineering East Building.
In addition, he has already been able to make connections with others in the college. For instance, a peer asked him for help on the McGraw Hill software used in a course.
“You just overhear people talking about their assignments and then, you just start a conversation based on that,” Ramirez-Munoz said. “Like ‘Oh, you’re taking calculus with that professor? I took him too, I can help you out.’”
