BY ELIZABETH BUCKNER

In print | Published September 25, 2003

After its second move in less than a year, the Lang Center for Social Responsibility has finally found a permanent home behind the Swarthmore train station. This newly renovated space features more office and communal space in one central location for all students and socially active groups on campus.

The center’s assistant director Debra Kardon-Brown said she hoped this new space would serve as a welcoming and convenient place for students, organizations and community groups.

“We are here as a resource. This fabulous space for meeting, sharing ideas and organizing is one of the best resources we can offer,” she said. The Lang Center also intends to have a staff member present until 8 p.m. each evening. “The staff members will be an available knowledge base for students to consult,” she said.Though the policies and procedures of the Lang Center are still being developed, Kardon-Brown said she hoped the new building would be a student space.

“We want the energy and dynamic of students to fill the building,” she said. Currently, the center is developing hours of operation and hiring students to staff the building in the evenings while also writing the guidelines for reserving the space.

The building, previously owned by W.S. Cumby & Son Construction, offers extensive office space, a conference seminar room, a kitchen, a resource room for students and additional student space in the basement that is currently still under construction. The Lang Center will also house the office of the Lang Professor for Social Change, who is yet to be determined, but will focus on issues of social change.

Kardon-Brown said exciting advantages of the central location were already apparent. Groups working in Chester have begun to collaborate with one another through the Lang Center for sharing vans.

“Instead of competing, we are working to consolidate the needs of our service organizations,” Kardon-Brown said.

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