The center's modernized cooling and heating systems will make the Center more comfortable year-round, Collis director Eric Ramsey said. The expanded cafe will feature an ice cream stand and more spacious serving and eating areas, while the second and third floors will have new meeting rooms for student organizations, including Student Assembly and The Aegis.
The second and third floor lounges will have new furniture, and extend opening hours to 2 a.m.from 4:30 p.m.
Collis 101 and Collis Common Ground, which temporarily housed serving and dining rooms during the renovations, will now close for renovations. These spaces, in addition to the first-floor television lounge, the basement game lounge and Fuel, will not open until later in the term, Ramsey said.
Fuel will become a gaming room and will feature pool tables, pinball machines, furniture and televisions.
Discussions about Collis renovations spanned the past four years and came to fruition with the help of an anonymous donor who provided the majority of the funding. Ramsey said the main reasons for the renovations were the lack of proper air conditioning and desires to make the Center more amenable to student activities.
"There has been a lot of talk about cooling, but also there are people who care very deeply for the Center and want to ensure it is central to the daily lives of students," he said.
Student representatives of Collis Governing Board and other Collis groups participated in the decision-making process.
"We followed what students wanted to make sure that their student center is current to their needs," he said.
Student committees selected everything from the furnishings to the paint colors to the layout.
A group of College administrators and Dartmouth Dining Services officials, as well as Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson, also contributed to the planning and execution of the renovations.
"The construction project has gone remarkably well according to schedule and budget," Ramsey said. "We're really proud of that."
Collis program coordinator Juliann Coombs is excited for the opening of a new work room, which will allow groups to engage in various creative projects such as making banners and posters, she said.
Student Accessibility Services will occupy a new office space on the second floor. It had previously shared a small suite with the Academic Skills Center on the third floor, and moved to Wilson Hall during the renovations.
"Figuring out how to use this new space without the Academic Skills Center by our side will be interesting," Student Accessibility Services director Ward Newmeyer said.
Relocating the office to a central area on the second floor will create a more welcoming environment, he said.
Students look forward to taking advantage of the updated space.
Before the renovations, the lines at the cafe seemed excessively long, Bonita Chen '16 said. She hopes expanding the cafe will the waiting time, and she looked forward to the opening throughout spring break.
Ben Parker '16 said the new furniture in the upstairs student lounge could attract more students to spend time in the Center.
"The campus does need a center somewhere, and I like the idea of centralizing student organizations in Collis," he said. "If the center is new, clubs will want to go there and congregate."
