The Virginia Informer

Last Updated:2/3/10 Section: News

Last fall, I got an invitation to join a Facebook group called "Open Miller Hall for everyone." Being new to the College, I had no idea what it was talking about. I left the invitation alone, but checked back a few days later. When I did, I read the blurb about what the group was about. The way the description was worded, it sounded to me like us lowly undergraduate students were being cheated out of a grand, new building on campus. So I joined.

Miller Hall, the new home of the Mason School of Business, sits in the Southwest corner of campus. It contains fourteen classrooms and seminar rooms, a 4,000 square foot multipurpose room, meeting rooms, study rooms, a café, and a courtyard. It is a great place to study and hang out. A problem that many students are finding, though, is that Miller is not always open. After 10PM on weekdays and 8PM on weekends, students who are not enrolled in the business school cannot enter the building. On top of that, undergraduate students also have $150 added to their tuition to pay for the building that they do not have complete access to.

I e-mailed Dean Lawrence Pulley of the Mason School of Business expressing these concerns. Some of the information he provided me with was surprising. For one, the building is not quite as exclusive as some think. Although only business students are allowed to enter the building after hours, if you are in Miller at the time of its "closing," you are allowed to stay. Dean Pulley said that these restrictions are "the best tradeoff between access, maintenance, security, [and] alignment with other building policies."

Perhaps what shocked me most about the hours came in a comparison of the access-controlled buildings on campus that students have to pay facility fees for. The list of buildings included Miller Hall, Swem, the ISC, and the Law School. Of these, Miller is open to everyone for the most hours per week-six more than Swem, which is open to the public 103 hours a week.

As for the $150 fee, it is only one of several things we pay for and may not ever use. From a website that Dean Pulley provided me with, I found, for example, that undergraduates pay $662 for intercollegiate athletics. The closest most students get to varsity sports is being a spectator at events. So, really, one could take up the same issue with this more expensive fee. However, some part of me feels like there would be a lot of unhappy people if Tribe football suddenly disappeared.

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