‘Where did my bed come from?’ and other questions no one has ever asked: A peek into a few of campus’s most secretive spaces

By Ryan O’Connell Associate Editor Where do professors eat their lunch? Why are there two little window panes in the Dwight Performing Art Center? And where does all the furniture come from? Well, students, wonder no more - The Gatepost has taken it upon itself to investigate some of these mysterious oft-forgotten corners of campus, and report back with photos and interviews from beyond the veil. The faculty dining lounge In the McCarthy Center, past Dunkin’ and across from the game room, is a panel of floor-to-ceiling glass windows stitching together two sections of white wall. Behind these sunken windows are light gray roller shades, which are normally drawn down.

To the unattentive, the still shades appear like a wall themselves - in fact, some students may not have ever realized there were windows there. On the other side lies the hidden faculty dining lounge, a small, cozy, and private space for professors to enjoy their mealtimes.

Michael Newmark, general manager of Dining Services, said the space is a “relaxed, comfortable setting” for faculty and staff. “The space is quiet and provides a great atmosphere to unwind and or catch up with colleagues on business or other matters.” According to Newmark, the lounge is only open to faculty and staff Monday through Wednesday, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., only serving lunch. When it isn’t open to service, it’s used as a private meeting space for Dining Services or other campus groups, he added. The faculty dining lounge, aside from its shorter hours, also has a smaller selection. Newmark said the main difference between the faculty lounge and the Dining Commons is that the lounge only has one entree, sides and salad, and one dessert, while the Dining Commons has a much larger variety. “[It’s a good place to] enjoy a good meal with friends and coworkers,” he added. The Dwight Performing Arts Center projection booth The Dwight Performing Arts Center (DPAC) is a grand theatrical hall, and hosts some of the biggest artistic events of the year on its stage. From orientation day to Hilltop’s plays to the end-of-semester Dance Team shows, students have many chances to become familiar with the DPAC. Yet, when they enter through the pair of double doors and find their way to their seats, the DPAC is almost always dark. So, there would be nothing amiss if most students went their entire academic careers without noticing the pair of thin glass windows above the entrance to the theater.

Felix Mwangi, A/V tech lead of Campus Events, said the space currently isn’t in use but used to store all the lighting control equipment for the stage. He added the projection booth used to be manned by Campus Events staff until about three years ago, when the lighting controls moved downstairs, to the immediate right of the entrance and by the sound control equipment. Mwangi said the move made it easier for two employees to control the lighting and sound, as they would be in closer proximity and could more easily communicate. He added, however, that Campus Events has plans to begin using the space again and to install a swiveling spotlight in the projection booth, which will be controlled manually by an A/V tech during performances. Although, Campus Events isn’t the only one who controls the projection booth. Katie Hebert, executive assistant of the Office of the President, said her department also uses the projection booth as a storage space, and has done so for at least 13 years. The Office of the President has their stock neatly piled against the right wall of the projection booth, surrounded by a chain-link cage. Hebert said the room stores confidential files, academic regalia, and was even used as a temporary store room for student loaner laptops, coordinated by the Division of Student Success. In actuality, the projection booth is little more than a closet with two windows, and the magic fades out at the sight of its dim lighting, low ceiling, and the Office of the President’s storage - but looking out onto the stage from its vantage point made it worth it. The Union Parking Lot Any resident student with a parking pass has been to the Union Lot before. The lot, now the primary parking location for freshmen students, is located less than a mile away from FSU’s main campus. The Student Transportation Center’s shuttle service runs loops and dispatch to the Union Lot to bring students parking back to campus in a fast and safe manner. But while students wait for the tram to arrive, they sit next to the Union Lot building. The structure is massive, but the bus stop is small. There’s a heated room students can wait inside during the winter months, but it’s not very big either. So what exactly is going on inside 538 Union Ave.? The answer? Well, almost everything.

The Union Lot building is the headquarters for FSU’s Facilities Department, and where Director Dan Giard’s main office is located. Giard, who has been with the University for 35 years and is set to retire in September, said the building is a base of operations for all the school’s mechanical trades. “We run grounds, we run the mechanic, … we have a carpenter, and then all the departments meet here in the morning - the plumber, the HVAC, ... this is where they come and sign in in the morning and they report to leave at the end of the day,” he said. Giard said the building’s warehouse-like appearance is because it was previously a car dealership before the University purchased it. Prior to that it was originally a supermarket, he added. “When we took the building over the roof leaked, everything leaked. There was orange shag carpeting. … It was all ’70s vintage,” he said. Giard said the Union Lot building is kind of like a storeroom, holding onto extra dormitory furniture, other inventory, and special garbage such as refrigerators and other metal trash, which must be discarded in an environmentally friendly way. The Union Lot building is full of stuff. It looks like an antique store, or a hoarder’s stash. There are hundreds of bed frames, mattresses, and desks below Giard’s raised foreman-style office that make a canyon of furniture in one corner of the building. Past that is the metal-scrap graveyard, where pillars of refrigerators, microwaves, paint cans, and other special-instruction waste is held until it can be sold and taken by a hazardous waste company. To the left of the scrapyard is a chain link fence, and behind that all the winter equipment - snow blowers, shovels, chains. When the equipment is out of season, it goes into the bullpen, said Giard. Back near Giard’s office, there’s a rectangular open room lined with dressed beds. These are here for the snow crew, he said, who must stay on campus during periods of extreme snow. He said the past four winters haven’t been too bad, but sometimes during harsh winters - when the snow crew needs to be on campus for two or three days in a row - they can get a little rest during downtime in the day, here at the Union Lot. Giard said he doesn’t spend a lot of time sitting in his office. “I spend most of my time on campus, out and about. I come down here in the morning to get everyone going and then at the end of the day just make sure everybody signs out and they go home.” The team at the Union Lot is about 20 people, he added. “I’ve been here a long time and they’ve always been great people,” Giard said. “So what keeps me going is just the friendships that you make. … They’re the people that make your day and keep you coming back for more.”