Join us to talk about the history of the Student Union here at the University of Utah!

Thanks for joining us on this week's episode of News For U. I'm Emma, and on today's episode of the podcast, we're gonna talk about the 66 year history of the A. Ray Olpin Student Union. Gardner Hall served as the first home of the Student Union. With growing numbers of students, the university felt it was time to expand their headquarters and build the A. Ray Olpin Student Union. The new Student Union opened in 1957, incorporating student desires and student needs. News Writer Cael Roberts has recently written, and published, an online article on the long history of the Student Union. Cael has joined us today to discuss more in depth the history of the Student Union. Nice to meet you, Cael, we're happy to have you on the podcast today.

I'm happy to be here.

Can you introduce yourself and explain what you do here at the Chronicle?

Yeah, so I'm Cale Roberts, and I'm a News Writer with the Chronicle. So, I write.

Can you tell us a little bit about your story and why you chose to write it?

Yeah. So, the story is about just the history of the Union building. And I chose to write it because on MLK Day, the Union Instagram page made a post about Martin Luther King Jr. and how he spoke at the Union one time, and I thought that was super interesting. And I was like, I want to write a story about the history of the Union and kind of different people that have come here, and also just kind of like how it came to be. So, yeah.

And it seems like you put a lot of research into your article. What did you find interesting while doing that research about the history of the Union?

I was able to like look at the archives of the library. So I looked at a lot of old like yearbook stuff, and a lot of old Chrony stuff, which was cool, because I write for the Chony. So, I like the Chrony. So, it was cool, just to be able to like see that and see, like, student perspectives, like from the 1950s. So, those people are like older and dead now. But they were like our age back then. So it's cool. It's interesting.

And can you tell us about the previous Student Union and why it was rebuilt?

Yeah. So, it was in Gardner Hall, which is not Gardner Commons. It's a different building. It's in President circle I think. I'm not 100% sure. I've never been there. But I think it was just too small. I think that was the thing. In one of the articles that I referenced in my article, I talked about how they really needed a new union building because the one and gardener Hall only provided seven square feet per student.

Oh, wow.

Which I guess is small. I guess at the time, like the average union provided 12 to 20 square feet per student. So, it was tiny. And so, they just needed more space.

Yeah. When did the new Student Union open and what features were incorporated?

Yeah. So, it opened in 1957. And I think just a lot of the features incorporated were just stuff that they thought students would want. So like bowling and billiards tables, and I think there were TVs, but I'm not actually sure. Anyway, I think it was just a lot of like, having things that they thought students would want to have, because it was kind of where they wanted students to hang out, because it was the students building. So, yeah.

Can you talk a little bit about how students contributed in helping create the current Student Union?

Yeah, so um, actually, the the building was funded entirely from student funds. So, they actually upped their building fee from like, $16 to $20, back in the 50s. To help pay for it, they kind of contributed in that way with their money, as they do with university things. And as spaces have been added or updated over the years, they've also been involved in that process. So, like, for example, the Chronicle, used to have a different office in this nion building, and then we outgrew it. It was time for a new one. And so, when they were building the new one, and making the plans for the new one, they actually got together like all the Chronicle people, and were like, hey, what do you guys want out of the space? Like, how do you use the current space? How will we use the new space? So, I think that's cool that they take student input into how to make the spaces just because it is a student building. So yeah.

I agree. In your article, you mentioned that there were several notable speakers and performance that the Student Union hosted. Who were some of the people that spoke or performed at the Student Union.

Yeah, the two that I thought were really cool were MLK, which I already mentioned. I think a lot of people know that one just because that's a huge deal. But another one that's kind of cool and interesting was the Grateful Dead played, which is cool. I had no idea. I knew who the Grateful Dead that were, but I didn't know that they played at the University of Utah, so that's cool. It's an interesting little tidbit.

How does the Union ensure that it stays looking modern and up to date?

Yeah, I think it's mostly furniture stuff. Like I said they update the spaces as they need updating. But I think in like the common areas, it's a lot of just changing out furniture just as it gets broken or gets dirty and gross or ripped or if it's just old and ugly. Then they'll switch it out with furniture that's new,

Nice. What was the main goal in creating the updated Student Union?

I think I think it was mostly just more space. There's a yearbook page from like, 1956 or seven, about the old Union. And it was really sentimental. They really loved their old Union, I think. I don't think it was like, we hate this space and we want a new one. I think it was just too small. And so yeah, they built a big one.

Okay. Um, can you explain what resources students have access to here in the Union?

Yeah, there's a ton of resource centers. There's the LGBT Resource Center, Women's Resource Center. ASUU is here. There are student offices here. Student media — the Chrony's here shout out. And yeah, I think it's good for students to know like, there's a ton of stuff here to do, and also to just help them. And yeah, I think they should do research and figure out all what's here.

According to your article, the campus has outgrown the Student Union again. Well, the Student Union be expanded in the near future?

I don't know. I would, I would think they'll probably just keep updating and expanding the current building for the time being. I think eventually, they're going to need a new building. That's kind of what it sounded like in my interview with the director of the Union. But he did not fill me in on their plans for that. But yeah, I think for the time being, they're just gonna keep updating the current building.

Okay. Do you have any kind of comments?

Thank you for having me, again.

Thank you for joining us today.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you for listening to this week's episode of News For U. Make sure to listen to a new episode next Monday.