Good news to share on the Student Center

TL;DR: Most retail dining reopens on Friday; food trucks on campus through tomorrow; repair work continues; shared spaces may be closed or inaccessible, but others are available across campus; complete this form if your student group needs fourth-floor access; more updates on the Student Life website.

Dear students,

A lot has happened since our last update, and things are headed in a positive direction. Thanks to the diligence of staff from the Department of Facilities, the Division of Student Life (DSL), and Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS), some essential services in the Student Center (W20) will resume this Friday, February 17 (see below for details).

Before reopening starts, we want you to know that conditions in the building will be different while spaces are closed off allowing construction crews to make repairs. Here’s what to expect, floor by floor:

• Basement - Spaces will be accessible at 7 am. The post office will remain closed until the fall, but mail has already been rerouted to the Central Square Post Office at 770 Massachusetts Avenue. Additionally, package deliveries to W20 will be routed back to the building from Mail Services at 350 Brookline Street (WW15) starting Friday.

• First Floor - LaVerde’s, Dunkin’, and TeaDo will reopen for regular business hours. Check the W20 repairs page for regular updates on what else is opening and when.

• Second Floor - Bibim Box and Carolicious will reopen on Friday for regular business hours, but the Lobdell seating area and other common spaces on the floor will remain closed until the fall.

• Third Floor - This floor sustained a lot of water damage and will remain closed.

• Fourth Floor - We expect extensive cleanup due to both significant flooding and flooring damage. So work can proceed on the ceilings, walls, and floors, we are pausing regular access to floor four. Campus Activities Complex and Student Organizations, Leadership and Engagement staff continue to work with student groups and programs to provide temporary, short-term access to their spaces, so their members can retrieve important materials. Please complete this form to arrange access for your group or contact student-activities@mit.edu if you have questions.

• Fifth Floor - Offices and study spaces will reopen at 7 am.

Finding Touchdown Space

Several of the areas that will remain closed in W20 are shared spaces. Here’s a list of resources you can use to find space now:

• Library spaces: https://libraries.mit.edu/study/

• Spaces reservable through the Atlas App: Spaces > New Reservation

• Unused classrooms for impromptu studying: https://classrooms.mit.edu/classrooms/#/choose

  • Directions: https://registrar.mit.edu/classrooms/reserving-classroom

• Sloan study spaces: https://mitsloanedtech.mit.edu/teaching-spaces/reservations/

• Venues listed on the Institute Events site: https://institute-events.mit.edu/plan/venues

Staff in DSL are working to identify more spaces. Keep checking the Student Life website for updates.

More Food Updates

Food Trucks. The following will be outside W20 today and Thursday:

• Boston Coffee Rescue - 7:30 am to 10:30 am

• Bibim Box - 11 am to 4:30 pm

Grocery Shuttle Service. Even though dining operations in W20 are reopening, expanded grocery shuttle service will launch this Friday and continue through the semester, running Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays from 11:00 am to 4:30 pm. Please consult the grocery shuttle page for schedules and route details.

Thank You

Please join us in thanking staff who put in hundreds of hours of work to get us to this point. And thank you again for your patience. This was an unwelcome surprise, but our community has handled it with equanimity and grace.

Best,
Suzy and Joe