Campus Activities Complex

W20 Updates & Repairs

This page is refreshed regularly. Please check frequently for the latest information.

DATE: February 16, 2023

What's Opening When? - This information will be updated as W20 tenants share their plans.

  • First floor: LaVerde's, Dunkin', and TeaDo - Regular hours starting Friday, February 17
  • Second floor:
    • Bibim Box and Carolicious - Regular hours starting Friday, February 17
    • Las Palmas - Regular hours starting Monday, February 20

***

DATE: February 15, 2023

Finding Touchdown Space [Reproduced from the email below]

Several of the areas that will remain closed in W20 are shared spaces. Here’s a list of resources you can use to find space now:

Staff in DSL are working to identify more spaces. Keep checking the Student Life website for updates.


Air Quality: During the damage assessment process, EHS’s tests confirmed that air quality in the building is well within acceptable ranges. Testing will continue over the coming weeks to monitor these conditions.


2/15 Update email from Suzy Nelson and Joe Higgins
FROM: Suzy Nelson and Joe Higgins
TO: All Students
RE: Good news to share on the Student Center

Dear students,

A lot has happened since our last update, and things are headed in a positive direction. Thanks to the diligence of staff from the Department of Facilities, the Division of Student Life (DSL), and Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS), some essential services in the Student Center (W20) will resume this Friday, February 17 (see below for details). 

Before reopening starts, we want you to know that conditions in the building will be different while spaces are closed off allowing construction crews to make repairs. Here’s what to expect, floor by floor:

  • Basement - Spaces will be accessible at 7 am. The post office will remain closed until the fall, but mail has already been rerouted to the Central Square Post Office at 770 Massachusetts Avenue. Additionally, package deliveries to W20 will be routed back to the building from Mail Services at 350 Brookline Street (WW15) starting Friday.

  • First Floor - LaVerde’s, Dunkin’, and TeaDo will reopen for regular business hours. Check the W20 repairs page for regular updates on what else is opening and when.

  • Second Floor - Bibim Box and Carolicious will reopen on Friday for regular business hours, but the Lobdell seating area and other common spaces on the floor will remain closed until the fall.

  • Third Floor - This floor sustained a lot of water damage and will remain closed until August.

  • Fourth Floor - We expect extensive cleanup due to both significant flooding and flooring damage. So work can proceed on the ceilings, walls, and floors, we are pausing regular access to floor four until August. Campus Activities Complex and Student Organizations, Leadership and Engagement staff continue to work with student groups and programs to provide temporary, short-term access to their spaces, so their members can retrieve important materials. Please complete this form to arrange access for your group or contact student-activities@mit.edu if you have questions.

  • Fifth Floor - Offices and study spaces will reopen at 7 am.

It's important to note that open floors are accessible by elevator.

Finding Touchdown Space [Reproduced above]

Several of the areas that will remain closed in W20 are shared spaces. Here’s a list of resources you can use to find space now:

Staff in DSL are working to identify more spaces. Keep checking the Student Life website for updates.

More Food Updates

Food Trucks. The following will be outside W20 today and Thursday:

  • Boston Coffee Rescue - 7:30 am to 10:30 am

  • Bibim Box - 11 am to 4:30 pm

Grocery Shuttle Service. Even though dining operations in W20 are reopening, expanded grocery shuttle service will launch this Friday and continue through the semester, running Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays from 11:00 am to 4:30 pm. Please consult the grocery shuttle page for schedules and route details.

Thank You

Please join us in thanking staff who put in hundreds of hours of work to get us to this point. And thank you again for your patience. This was an unwelcome surprise, but our community has handled it with equanimity and grace.

Best,
Suzy and Joe

***

DATE: February 9, 2023

FROM: Suzy Nelson and Joe Higgins
TO: All Students
RE: Updates on W20 and addressing student concerns

TL;DR: Work to assess the feasibility of reopening W20 is ongoing; food trucks on site every weekday through 2/14; staff are focusing on food/dining, spaces for student work/relaxation, and events; more on USPS and packages, building access, color printing; check the Student Life website for the latest.

Dear students,

This is not the spring semester opening that we had hoped for! We are grateful to the many students and community members who sent questions and messages of support after weather-related flooding took the Stratton Student Center (W20) offline. Over the past few days, we heard concerns from students about a wide range of topics. We are writing to respond to those issues, which are most likely on the minds of many students and are the focus of staff working to manage the complex and evolving situation in W20.

Current Status

Teams from the Department of Facilities, the Division of Student Life (DSL), Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS), and more have been working hard to assess the damage and to make contingency plans. The results of damage surveys and air-quality testing will be central to our discussions about when parts of the building could reopen for limited hours or essential services. 

We expect to know more about the damage next week and will share another update. In the meantime, please check the Student Life website for ongoing developments. 

While damage to W20 has presented us with unfortunate circumstances, there has been an outpouring of support from all corners of the campus. Also, this building is slated for renovation beginning in April 2023, and plans were already underway for W20 to go offline. We are escalating efforts to mitigate the impact on students and the community by providing alternate food and dining arrangements, programming spaces, and touch-down study spaces in addition to working with student organizations to support their needs.

Food and Dining -- The food truck information was updated on February 10. Please see above for the latest.

The availability of food and groceries is foremost in our minds. We know how much students rely on W20 for meals, groceries, and snacks throughout the day, and we are happy to report that we have made some headway. First, MIT Dining has arranged to have food trucks on campus each weekday through Tuesday, February 14. Here’s the schedule (all hours 11:00 am - 2:30 pm unless otherwise noted; schedule subject to change):

  • 2/10 - Boston Coffee Rescue (7:30 - 10:30 am) and Bibim Box

  • 2/13 - Bibim Box and Naco Taco

  • 2/14 - Bibim Box and Naco Taco

Also, our dining partner Bon Appetit is increasing grab-and-go options at Bosworth’s in Lobby 7 and in the Forbes Family Cafe in the Stata Center.

To make it easier to get groceries, the Parking & Transportation Office added a Friday grocery shuttle to their regular Sunday/Wednesday schedule starting February 17. Grocery shuttles run from 11 am to 4:30 pm. Consult the grocery shuttles website for details and route updates.

And please remember, food security is always an important consideration. Visit the DoingWell website for additional food resources, and check out the MIT food and grocery map for more local dining and shopping options. 

Social, Study, and Relaxation Spaces

Colleagues in the Registrar’s Office, DSL, and other DLCs are working to identify potential spaces that can be repurposed for impromptu student gatherings across campus. As always, space is at a premium on campus, but staff involved in response planning understand the importance of these spaces to you.

Events

The teams from Student Organizations, Leadership, and Engagement (SOLE) and the Campus Activities Complex (CAC) are working with event hosts to relocate or postpone events that were scheduled for spaces in W20. 

More Updates

Post Office and Packages: As they did during the pandemic, USPS redirected mail from the W20 branch to the post office at 770 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square. Post-box holders’ mail is available there now. Additionally, package deliveries to W20 have been rerouted to Mail Services at 350 Brookline Street (WW15).

Student Group Access: If your group is tagged in Engage as "shared storage/office access," you can request access to your space to gather materials through Sunday, February 12, by completing this form: https://cglink.me/2cy/s319

Color Printer Access: Staff are working with Copytech and IS&T to relocate the color printer in W20’s lobby. Options are available, though, so please consult this list of campus printers to find another nearby.

Thank You

We really appreciate your patience as plans come together. We also want to recognize the hard work of staff from Facilities, DSL, EHS, and offices across MIT who are responding to this emergency. They have done extraordinary work in a very short time, and we are deeply grateful for their diligence, care, and speed.

Best,
Suzy Nelson and Joe Higgins

***

DATE: February 7, 2023

TO: The MIT Community
FR: Suzy Nelson and Joe Higgins
RE: Important Student Center Update

Dear MIT community members,

During the extreme cold snap last weekend, water pipes in the Student Center (W20) froze and subsequently burst, causing significant damage to spaces and systems on the first, second, third and fourth floors, and in the basement. As staff assess the damage, the Student Center will remain closed. Staff are working diligently to estimate when critical systems can get back online and the building can reopen.

Out of an abundance of caution, the Division of Student Life and the Department of Facilities are planning for an extended closure. At this time, staff from Dining, the Student Organizations, Leadership and Engagement team, the Campus Activities Complex, and related offices are working on plans so student groups and staff who have offices in W20 can get back into their spaces. Staff members are working with event hosts on contingency plans. And we will have more information about dining and food options once the damage is fully assessed. Updates will be posted on the Student Life website as information becomes available.

We recognize this may be an inconvenience for members of our community. Please know that our teams are working day and night to both address the damage and support the community with needed services. We ask for your understanding and patience as staff work through this situation.

Please reply to this message or email w20updates-reply@mit.edu if you have any questions.

Best regards,
Suzy Nelson and Joe Higgins