NORTHWEST COMMUNITY College students will soon have their own space at the campus here.
Student union offices and a leisure area will be located in the current bookstore portion on the ground floor of the cafeteria building and part of a large meeting room just across the hall from the bookstore will be taken over for additional student activities.
In turn, the bookstore will move to the former Kiva cafe location in the trades building and combined with a coffee shop service.
“This will enable the bookstore to better serve NWCC learners with an expanded textbook area and the new space will integrate instructional activities in food services, and daytime and evening access to computer workstations,” said the college in a statement.
Students will also have free daytime use of sports facilities in the former Kiva space.
The Kiva had been run as a coffee shop/restaurant and entertainment and meeting venue by a private operator through a lease arrangement with the college until it ended the lease this spring.
It had been a popular spot for live music and events not always connected with the college.
Northwest Community College Students' Union organizer Mikael Jensen said the shuffle will correct a long-standing deficiency.
“This is the biggest campus of the college and there is no student space,” he said.
“We're very excited and it's going to be a great space,” Jensen added of the pending move to the cafeteria building.
He said the students' union will now be able to hold events without having to work through a private contractor, which had been the case when the Kiva was in operation.
The students' union now occupies a cramped office next door to the former Kiva location.
“We will be planning to make the space more of a destination,” Jensen said of the move he expects will take place by September. “And we'll have free coffee.”