This fall, students on the Brownsville campus will have another place to eat, play, study and relax with their friends at the new game room in the Student Union.
Since UTRGV opened its doors in Fall 2015, the Brownsville campus has not had an official game room.
Student Union Director Edna Zambrano said the lack of space and the inability to move departments outside the union kept the Brownsville campus from having a game room.
“There was nowhere else to move departments and the programs that were in the Union,” Zambrano said. “So, until they built this other building and we were able to relocate people, we were able to open the game room.”
Ovér Garcia, a political science junior, said he thinks students on the Brownsville campus could use another space to hang out.
“Edinburg has a great game room with several pool tables and I think it’s great that the Brownsville campus is also expanding [because] students need a game room here just to kind of relax,” Garcia said.
Video games, billiards, foosball and board games will be available in the new game room.
Throughout the semester, new releases such as “NBA 2K19” and “Madden 2K19,” along with other popular video games, such as “Fortnite,” will be available for students to play. Video game play is 75 cents for 30 minutes.
Students can earn V-Bucks by participating in monthly tournaments of billiards and poker.
Billiards is $2.50 an hour and board games are free. A UTRGV student ID is required to play.
“We do charge students to play there, and that money is just, basically, turned around and used also to buy equipment,” Zambrano said.
Student Union Event Manager Mabel Cortina-Matos said money is collected and used to replace controllers and board games as well as to purchase new game releases.
“Eventually, we’ll also be purchasing some furniture so the students can actually hang out in there,” Cortina-Matos said. “So, if you are going with your friend that doesn’t want to play pool with you, they can just sit there and eat or hang out.”
To play, students can pay with cash, a Visa or Mastercard credit card or V-Bucks.
“The first week of school we are going to have free play,” Zambrano said. “So, the week after that, if everything is set up and going well, that is when we are going to start charging our students to play.”
The game room is located in Student Union 1.10, the previous location of the Student Media office. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
On the Edinburg campus, the game room is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday.
“Once we get through the month of September and we can analyze usage of both game rooms, we can review the hours and see if any changes are needed,” Zambrano said via email.
Zambrano said the cost of renovating of the game room is about $17,000.
She said the game room is funded by the Student Union fee UTRGV students pay each semester.
The mandatory fee is $30 per long semester and $15 per summer session. The operating budget for the Student Union is $215,000 for both buildings–$130,000 for the Edinburg campus and $85,000 for the Brownsville campus.
“What the game room brings is just another place to hang out outside of classes, and that was lacking in Brownsville,” Zambrano said. “In the game room, the Union, [students] can make all the noise they want to; they can eat, they can bring their food, they can pack a lunch or buy lunch there. So, it’s just going to make a difference as far as giving students another fun place to go, another fun place to hang out.”
For more information, call the Student Union at 665-7989.
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