Rod Oshins remembers how new, clean and undecorated the Schine Student Center was when it first opened on the Syracuse University campus 30 years ago.

At the time, Oshins — a Class of 1989 SU alumnus — was a member of the SU Musical Stage (SUMS). When Schine first opened in October 1985, the group was working on their production of “A Christmas Carol.”

Oshins recalled that all of the student organization offices were located downstairs and a dry night club called The Milky Way — which was “nothing more than a giant room with tables and chairs” — existed where the Jabberwocky Café is now located.

“I can’t believe it’s been 30 years,” Oshins said. “I feel like I could still be there.”

Thirty years after the initial need for a community gathering space at SU has been met, the university is considering future improvements to the building. Schine has been an integral part of discussions relating to the university’s Campus Master Plan as SU decides what exactly it will do to accommodate the growing student body with an up-to-date student center.

 

After Schine initially opened, Oshins and other students who were involved with SUMS at the time were asked to start a comedy group in an effort to make Schine more popular for student entertainment. Over the Edge Comedy Players was born.

John DiDonna, who was the executive producer of the Over the Edge Comedy Players at the time, said Schine was a great place to be and that he loved working in the student offices downstairs.

As a result, Over the Edge Comedy Players became the main entertainment group on campus, said DiDonna, who is a Class of 1988 SU alumnus.

“There were all new possibilities (in Schine),” DiDonna said. “It became the center and hub for everyone to come together. The campus was no longer split up or spread out.”

Schine was considered the answer to a campaign for a student center that lasted about 60 years, said Mary O’Brien, a reference archivist in the SU Archives.

 

In the 1970s, there were plans to build a student center, but the oil crisis of 1973 prevented it. It wasn’t until the mid-80s when Reneé Schine Crown, a class of 1950 alumna and life member of the Board of Trustees, gave a $3 million donation to the university that SU received the student center it had long been waiting for.

When Sam Mettler, a television producer in Los Angeles and creator of the Emmy-winning show “Intervention,” visited SU two years ago to speak at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, he also stopped by Schine.

“It looked exactly the same,” said Mettler, a Class of 1991 SU alumnus. “A lot of SU did — it was amazing.”

Mettler added that when he walked downstairs to the bookstore inside Schine, he saw a cardboard figure of one of his professors at SU, Marvin Druger, and thought it was actually him.

“I said his name and hello before I realized it was cardboard,” Mettler said with a laugh.

Mettler recalled that the downstairs portion of the bookstore used to be a music store where students would buy their CDs and albums. However, the Panasci Lounge upstairs has always been known as a study room.

The square couch just inside the main entrance of Schine was “the jock spot” where campus celebrities such as Pearl Washington, Rony Seikaly and Derrick Coleman would hang out, Mettler added.

“It was the cool place to go during the day. That’s the place you went in between classes, especially when the weather was lousy,” Mettler said. “It was also a place where you didn’t want to look bad because you were going to see someone you knew.”

Although Mike Pollock has not been back to visit Schine since he graduated from SU in 1988, he does remember walking down the giant spiral staircase inside the building and feeling like he was in a video game.

Pollock said Schine was a “very imposing structure” that was hard to forget. He remembers the large, sparse auditorium and being very impressed by the food court.

“It was all bricks — nothing but bricks,” Pollock said of Schine.

He added that Schine was a gathering spot and a “great place to go in a pinch.”

Watching the construction of the building, Pollock said, was interesting. He recalled the mixed reactions on campus about whether or not Schine was needed in the first place and whether or not SU could afford it. But after it was built, Pollock said, the general reaction was positive.

Student Association President Aysha Seedat said she thinks Schine is a great place for SU students to hang out and for the university to engage students, but it definitely has room for improvement.

Seedat said SA is looking to add more things to Schine, like the kiosk in the main foyer, to help modernize the building and make it more of a student center.

One goal, Seedat added, is to purchase a magazine rack for Schine so that student publications can be properly displayed throughout the year.

For a lot of students, Schine is typically their first impression of SU, Seedat said.

“Looking back, my decision to come here was really last minute and the campus really did a lot to help solidify my choice,” Seedat said. “… So believe it or not, Schine really did have a say in whether or not I was to come here.”

Published on December 1, 2015 at 11:22 pm

Contact Sara: smswann@syr.edu | @saramswann