The newly built Student Union Facility is a new way for the students of San Jose State University to unite and experience the campus life. It houses the most services on campus and this makes the building stand out from all other facilities on campus. The building is conveniently located in the middle of the school campus - closer towards San Fernando St. - which gives students even more of an incentive to visit the facility. The new The exterior of the building has a super modern design so it's hard to miss because of how unique and different it is compared to other buildings on campus. A majority of the building is made of glass so there's natural lighting during the day time which makes the atmosphere of the building more inviting. The Student Union building is a great place for all students to come and utilize the many resources that are offered.
Info
The Student Union Building currently has a food court, a computer service center, an event service department, a general service and transportation solutions center, an information center, a lecture hall, a ballroom, and a bookstore. The way that the Student Union was set up, it was really easy for me to navigate around the building. There is also a general information desk right as you walk into the west entrance of the building. The middle section of the Student Union building is actually the original part of the structure and it is currently being remodeled and upgraded to incorporate all the other buildings together. There are additional newer sections of the building that are already built and are being built on the sides of the main Student Union building. The picture on the bottom is a part of the newly built Student Union facility and that is located on the west side of the building. The north side is also completed while the east side, and south side of the building are still under construction.
Food
One of the biggest and greatest parts of the Student Union is the food court - located on the west side of the building - which is a new edition to the original Student Union building. With styles of food ranging from
Chinese to Italian, your taste buds will never get tired! Students can easily make new friends because of how social everyone is around the food court. It's also a great place to do homework because it has a lot of space for large study groups. My favorite foods here are the sandwiches from Mojo Burger and the pizzas from Brick's Pizza. I like to eat here because the Dining Commons can get tiring to me and I only have the five day meal plan for the Dinning Commons. The food court seems very convenient to me because students can use their dining dollars at the food court at times of emergencies. There is plenty of seating indoors and
outdoors, but it can get quite packed around lunch time. There are a good number of seats upstairs too, but I don't think that it's the best place to sit because people tend to be less social on the second floor of seating. This could be due to all the number of single seating chairs. There are no tables for people to sit together and talk. Usually it takes me about five minutes to find a seat, but that isn't really too bad.
Books?! ewwwww...
Another big part of the Student Union is the bookstore which is located on the north side of the building. The bookstore is quite a large building; it's two stories big. At first, one would think, "Two whole floors of textbooks?!" but there are way more things that are sold at the bookstore. All textbooks are actually sold on the second floor. School supplies like pens, paper, scan-trons, folders, and binders can be found on the first floor of the bookstore. A part of the bookstore sells Apple products at a lower price for students and another part of the store sells SJSU apparel and SJSU mugs, shot cups, and water bottles. These electronics and items can also be found on the first floor. As you can see, it's clear that the bookstore sells a variety of things. I like to come here sometimes because occasionally there are awesome deals like buy one get one fifty percent off on the SJSU hoodies and sweatshirts. When I first walked in to the bookstore I noticed that everything was split into sections. On the first floor one corner had school supplies, one corner had clothes, one corner had Apple products, and one corner had cups, shot cups, and mugs. Everything seemed organized and easy to find. During football games the bookstore tends to be really crowded so stock up on SJSU apparel before hand.
Know your way around
The Transportation Services are also located within the Student Union.
Students of SJSU can come here to pick up their free clipper cards. This gives students access to transportation for free all around the Santa Clara county! The Transportation Service Center employs people with knowledge about getting around all of San Jose. A large number of students at SJSU don't have cars so their main way of getting around is by VTA or bus. Students can drop by the center if they want to get directions on how to get somewhere by VTA or bus. The Transportation Center can be found on the east wing of the Student Union building. After entering the east entrance, there will be doors wide open to the right and that is the Transportation Services department. Additional information is available at the center too. For the students that ride bikes, they can visit the center to find out about the enclosed gates for bike.
Technology stuff...
The Computer Service Center is also a really great resource for students. The workers - some of whom are students at SJSU - at the Computer Service Center are trained and have a great deal of experience with computers. Whether its a hardware issue like a broken screen or an internal issue like a virus, the employees there are ready to help. Students often misplace files or accidentally delete files and the computer service center can help retrieve those missing files. I personally have not been here yet because I have enough experience with computers to be able to solve my laptop issues or troubleshoot, but a lot of students don't have that experience in the tech field so the Computer Service Center would be a really cool resource to have. Your laptop doesn't have to be broken in order for you to bring it in. You can bring it there for a clean up so that your computer can run faster or you can bring it there for routine scans for viruses or malware.
Wrappin' it up!
The resources mentioned above are just a few of the major ones. There are about a dozen more facilities that will be completed by the end of this year. There will be a bowling alley, an LGBT center, a printing center, a spartan cafe, a meeting room, a MOSIAC, and a Cesar Chavez Community Action Center. Most of the new centers that are going to be finished will benefit the community around San Jose State. After it is completed, it will be the ultimate destination for students especially the freshmen or the new incoming students. Overall, the Student Union is an amazing place for students to go to because of how many resources are offered in one giant facility.
