Commuter Lounge Celebrates 25K Visitors

The Graduate and Commuter Student Life Center located in Green Hall celebrated its milestone of 25,000 total visitors with food, decorations and a prize drawing March 29.

Though the lounge’s visitation goal for March 29 was 25,000, the center has actually received close to 32,000 visitors since its grand opening in the spring of 2017.

“We get to celebrate with our students, and it really means that we get to live life with them,” Director of Commuter Student Life Eric Fehr said. “All those extra tap ins, all that data that we gather about usage, it means being able to provide more services and greater resources.”

The center hung gold decorations and blew up star-shaped balloons and a big 25K balloon in celebration of the accomplishment. The first 100 students were entered into a drawing to win PopSockets for cellphones, and students had additional opportunities to indulge in a nacho bar, cookies and other deserts.

“We didn’t want to make it elaborate. We didn’t want to do big sweatshirt giveaways because we didn’t want it to be about the giveaways,” Fehr said. “We really wanted it to be about celebration and remembering where we’ve come from as a department.”

Since Commuter Student Life is growing at a rapid rate, according to Fehr, the center is planning renovations for summer 2018. The plans include tripling the seating capacity by getting rid of some office space.

Key components in the center’s promotional success include the use of social media to regularly display information and utilizing Liberty’s chapter of Public Relations Student Society of America’s firm, Innovations PR. Innovations PR created a video to help students find the lounge in Green Hall.

“Since the beginning of the fall, we’ve really relied on commuters to spread the word, which they have,” Fehr said. “A lot of it has been word of mouth.”

Renovation plans are only possible due to students’ dedication to returning to the center, according to Fehr.

“I think (it’s) really important for our commuters to know that when they use the things that they are given, the chances of those things expanding or growing will be much better,” Fehr said.

Commuter students make up 46 percent of Liberty’s residential population. With such a large group, the life center stays busy brainstorming ways to cater to the needs of commuter students. Plans for the next celebration include an open house to introduce “Lounge 3.0” after renovations and welcome students back from summer break.

“We’re not certain if we’re going to restart the count over for the year or if we’re going to continue,” Fehr said.

Students looking forward to the fall semester can expect tailgates with free Chick-fil-A and giveaways. At the first tailgate, the department will be giving away free commuter sweatshirts.

The location of the tailgates will also move from the Pavilion Parking Lot behind the LaHaye Ice Center to the LaHaye Parking Lot. The Pavilion Lot will be available for commuter parking during these times.

For details on activities at the commuter center, email commuter@liberty.edu.