Thus the university now has a campus center that serves as the central meeting place for student groups, organizations, university offices and places of recreation and eating.“Every university I visited had a student commons or other central location on campus that served not only students but prospective students and alumni as well” said Junior, Anessa Mitchell, “I’m glad our university finally has such a place.”
Long talked about by university officials and applauded by former university president, Steven Sample as a tremendous addition to USC’s campus, the new Ronald Tudor Campus Center provides a variety of places for both students and faculty to socialize.
Equipped with a three story seating area complete with tables and a grand fireplace, The Trojan Family Room provides students with ample room to study and converse quietly with each other under the vast dome ceiling overhead.
However, this impressive area is not the central attraction of the new heart of the university’s campus. The outdoor International Plaza, where students can eat what they they purchase from The Marketplace food court, receives the highest volume of people at the campus center. According to Eric Andrada, Assistant Director of Operations for the campus center, the attendants who supervise and maintain the center take notice of disparities in the building's use.
The campus center boasts its employment of several student workers who not only act as “student staff”, which sit at reception to direct and inform visitors regarding office locations and events, but a team of “campus center attendants”, who patrol the building to observe and report how it is used. “This optimizes the center’s use since we are able to tell who is using what parts of our resources and in what volume,” said Andrada.
Although several of the university’s once scattered administrative offices are now centralized in one building for the benefit of prospective and current students, there is some speculation as to whether the new building is as useful in recreation to students as those of other universities. “We definitely needed a central building to house university offices and provide more study space for students, but several parts of it I think are just for the university to show off. There are several expensive tapestries and works of art in the building that are visually appealing to visitors and alumni but have no use to the students who spend most of their time here,” said Anessa Mitchell. 
Just as promised by university officials, the new Ronald Tudor Campus Center includes favorable hot spots for students to interact socially. The campus bar, Traditions has been relocated to the new campus center and has been joined by Tommy’s Place, a casual restaurant with students complete with a large stage for musical performances. Although these new locales boast more space than the temporary Traditions from The Lot, these venues have been placed far from sight by the center’s planning committee. The new student bar and restaurant is located two stories underneath the campus center and can only be accessed by students from a stairwell located in the back of the building. “Tommy’s Place was originally supposed to be open for lunch and dinner but due to under-staffing, it has only been open from four in the afternoon to two in the morning since it opened,” said Monica Parra, a member of the campus center’s Student Staff. While these student-friendly areas struggle to meet the hours and provide amenities that were promised, venues more friendly toward visitors and alumni such as the upstairs restaurant, Moreton Fig, have already hired a full staff and are serving both lunch and dinner throughout the week.
While the new Ronald Tudor Campus Center accomplishes the task of bringing past, present and future Trojans together under its impressive architecture, it may have some progress to make in order to become a permanent fixture in the campus’s social atmosphere.
