The Student Union game room offers a number of different arcade-style games ranging in price from 25 to 50 cents.

QUARTER ARCADE

SU Game Room Provides Fun

By: Ryan Levinsohn

Posted: 9/20/07

The Student Union has started charging for use of the game room, but plans are in motion to bring a bigger and better game room to the building, according to Corey O'Brien, business services manager of the SU.

The current game room, which opened at the start of last semester, currently charges 25 to 50 cents for each use of a game.

"We are not trying to make any money on this," O'Brien said. "We are just trying to recoup some costs. If you would go to any arcade around here, you would certainly pay more than 25 cents for a game."

According to O'Brien, the leasing of the games costs about $2,000 a month. Costs come out of the SU budget, which gets a majority of its money from student fees.

"The intention was just to get it open and get people exposed to it, then the [SUBOG] Policy Council said we will be charging in the fall," O'Brien said.

Some students are unsettled by the new charge.

Christopher Gilson, a 5th-semester English major, believes the game room should not charge.

"Personally I don't think it's right, we are already paying enough money to go here, why should we pay for the game room?" Gilson said. "It's not amazing."

O'Brien defended the plan to charge, saying that it is necessary to offset some of the costs associated, especially considering upgrades of games from last year.

"We have nicer machines, everything is newer," O'Brien said. "We figured that would offset complaints of paying a quarter for a game."

The updated equipment in the game room includes a basketball shooting game, a new DDR machine, pinball machines, a new air hockey table and a new pool table.

"This year our numbers of people using the game room are actually up," O'Brien said. "Friday and Saturday night we can have as much as 45 people in the game room in a given time."

O'Brien attributes the increase to the new and updated games.

One new game room user is Trey Miller, a 9th-semester history major.

"Last semester I didn't see much in here," Miller said. "I never came in until I saw the pool table."

Olek Madej, a 5th-semester pharmacy major, frequents the game room about once a week to play DDR.

"It was a little disappointing," Madej said about having to pay for the game. "But it's only 25 cents a game. If it was a dollar, it would be ridiculous."

According to O'Brien, plans are also underway to drastically improve the game room.

"We have about a 1,000 square foot game room and we are going to 2,800 square feet," O'Brien said. "I hope to have three 46-inch LCD TVs, two with Wiis, one with X-Box or vice versa, whichever is more popular."

O'Brien also hopes to bring two miniature bowling lanes and touch screen games such as Scene It to the room.

"We started plans for this new game room this past May," O'Brien said. "Our hope is to have this open sometime next semester, but I can't make any promises."

The new game room would go where mailboxes were once located off the main lobby of the SU.

The mailboxes were removed from the building and put in different spots throughout campus because students complained about leaving their dorms for mail, according to Monica Rudzik, director of the SU.

O'Brien says that charging of the games will continue into the new game room but that prices will remain the same.

"We hope to make it the place to go," O'Brien said.

Contact Ryan Levinsohn at Ryan.Levinsohn@UConn.edu.