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 By Dale Russell / STUDENT PUBLICATIONS |
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| Many students expressed disappointment when the Space Planning Committee tried to give Under the Couch to the School of Architecture. | |
The Network will make the space available to the Georgia Tech Chorale for two practices each week.
At the end of Winter Quarter, an advisory committee will evaluate the Network's progress. If their progress is deemed satisfactory, Under the Couch will be allowed to remain open indefinitely while a new space will be found for the Chorale to utilize.
"There have been concerns as to whether the Musician's Network was living up to its charter and whether the Under the Couch program was serving its purpose," said Lee Wilcox, Vice President for Student Affairs. "I proposed that the Network be allowed to stay in the Under the Couch space and try to improve their efforts, respond to some of the criticism, and better live up to their purpose."
"The committee decided to allow them to stay for at least the fall and winter quarters, during which time they would be asked to make progress in better fulfilling their mission and responding to some of the concerns and complaints that we have heard."
The Musician's Network is pleased to have a chance to keep Under the Couch operating in its current location.
"Now that Under the Couch is safe for the time being, I'd like to encourage everyone to participate and help make this place the best it can possibly be," said Spencer Ho, Musician's Network Vice President. "Under the Couch offers a recording studio for any Georgia Tech student and valuable space for various functions, among many other things."
Ho and Wilcox agree that it is important for the Network to address the perceived problems surrounding Under the Couch.
"They need to understand what the concerns are," Wilcox said. "They have become a narrowly focused organization in terms of types of music. Their charter talks about all sorts of different music so they need to broaden their perspective."
"There are concerns that most of the people that go there are not Tech students," Wilcox continued. "There are more high school students than Tech students, and that is not their purpose either. There have also been concerns about parking, garbage, noise, and even perhaps underage drinking in the [Under the Couch] area."
"We wanted to create an advisory committee that would help the Musician's Network. We want to work with them to respond to those concerns and we want to develop some kind of assessment tool so we can say objectively whether they met the challenge. We want the Musician's Network to be very involved in setting goals and figuring out how to reach those goals."