(Photo by: Jasmine Mills)

‘The living room of campus’ is how many describe the student lounge, staff and students alike. The student lounge is located in GEB 151 and 154, where the rooms are directly across from each other. Each room has its own specialty. One is gaming-based with lots of TV screens and gaming consoles. The other offers ping pong, pool, chess and more–and don’t forget the volleyball court set up just outside. But the student lounge is more than what meets the eye.

“We also put on lots of different events for students. Some of those are educational, and then some of them are just fun social hangouts where students can connect with other students,” Mo Rammel, Coordinator of Student Life, said.

These have included events with SART DART (Sexual Assault Resource Team and Drugs and Alcohol Resource Team), Love is Respect, The Haunted Lounge, Soberfest and more. Overall, the lounge is meant to be a comfortable space for students to relax and connect with fellow students. It is also an amazing resource for those attending JCCC.

During SART DART’s most recent event, Safe Spring Break, the student lounge gave out mocktail recipes, condoms and sunscreen. They also partnered with the campus police to provide safety tips to students.

The ‘fun’ activity team plans events like the Haunted Lounge, Karaoke events and more. These events typically have a higher attendance rate than the educational events, so the student lounge hopes to even out these attendance rates.

But the student lounge is only able to make these activities happen if students scan their student ID’s.

“Sometimes students don’t want to do that, but I always tell them that they need to do it for budgeting purposes, so that next semester when they come here, they will have a new pool queue. It is also for safety. If something happens at the lounge, we need to know who was in the lounge,” Selin Elmas, the Student Lounge team lead, said.

Student ambassadors and student lounge staff, like Elmas, work to make sure that the student lounge is a safe, respectful and welcoming space for all students, and they encourage students to stop by between classes.

“If you have, like, 20 minutes between [classes], just stop by and meet someone. If you don’t want to meet anyone, just come and check with us and you can know more about the resources, or just come here and you can do your assignments,” Elmas said. “It’s also a reason to stay on campus. If you have a class at 10 a.m. and not another until noon, you have that one hour break and some people may leave and skip their next class,” Anne Turney, director of Student Life and Leadership, said.

The lounge is often busiest during common break times and at the end of the day, when students flock to play their favorite video games, board games or sports.

This is Charlie Roberts’ first semester here at JCCC, and in her time at the student lounge, she has enjoyed playing chess. Her friend, Abby Sherman, often charges her phone and plays ping pong in the lounge.

“The first time I went here, it was packed,” Roberts said. “I usually just ask someone to play chess.”

Roberts and Sherman mostly hear about the events at the student lounge by simply walking by and stopping in, but not as much from other advertisements.

“I feel like it’s fun for students to mingle and have a break from their classes,” Sherman said.

The student lounge is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with study time every Monday from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. However, they often host events outside of those hours, and students can stay up to date with activities by searching the student lounge on JCCC’s Get Involved page.