Student Council President Abby Fifer and Newcomb Hall officials met with representatives of Contracted Independent Organizations on Wednesday night to discuss ways to redesign CIO offices on the first floor of Newcomb Hall.
The meeting was part of an ongoing effort by Student Council and Newcomb Hall Director William Ashby, in conjunction with a University efficiency initiative called Process Simplification to find ways to use the CIO offices better.
Process Simplification was started in 1994 to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of University functions from employee hiring to running orientation programs.
A Council working group also has been meeting with CIOs on an individual basis.
After the offices are overhauled this summer, Room 164, which currently contains office space for about 50 CIOs, could serve all 400 CIOs at the University, Fifer said.
"The way we allocate space right now doesn't make the best use of the space and doesn't take account of the diversity of CIOs there," she said.
Some organizations use their space mainly for storage, while others actually work and receive phone calls in their offices, she said.
Redesigning the space "is definitely needed," said Sheila Laderburg, chair of the Council student arts committee. "What it could really do is increase production among CIOs who really need the space and ask for it year after year."
Every CIO that applied for office space this year received it, Laderburg said. However, many CIOs do not apply for space because the offices do not serve their needs, she said.
There were only a handful of CIOs present at the Wednesday meeting. However, they brought up diverse needs, said Annie Wagner, president of OFFScreen, an organization that brings independent films to Newcomb Hall Theatre.
Some of the ideas presented at the meeting were to designate specific storage space such as lockers, to set aside more communal workspace and to buy equipment such as copier and fax machines that could be shared by CIOs, Laderburg said.
Some CIOs also could benefit from private meeting rooms, Wagner said.
The exact shape of the redesigned offices will become clear after CIOs turn in their applications for office space in April, Fifer said.
Ultimately, she said she hopes the proposed new student center would include bigger and better CIO office space.
The University has hired a consulting firm to investigate the needs that a new student center could meet. The firm is scheduled to release a report in April.
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