HUGE turnout for WKU’s Helm Library opening day
Features 85,000 Sq. Ft. & top restaurants
UPDATE: Monday morning, Western Kentucky University students are celebrating the official grand opening of The Commons at Helm Library.
WKU president Tim Caboni believes The Commons will go a long way to improve retention and graduation rates at WKU.
“So what you have today really, we would argue, is a national model for the library of the future. Libraries are no longer book repositories or places where folks come to copy materials. They are gathering spaces. They are intellectual hubs,” said Caboni.
Western Kentucky University Students are finally getting a taste, literally and figuratively of what one long-awaited project has to offer.
“We thought it was going to be ready around August of last year, said WKU junior Abigayle Bryant. “And then we thought it was going to be ready around the fall and then around the beginning of January, and now it’s finally here. It’s been a very long process of waiting.”
WKU junior Srirangan Iyer added, “It’ll be very nice to have food options a lot closer to the [music]building that I don’t have to stand outside for. I like the food trucks, but this is better for sure.”
“I think this will be a great place to come and work with people to do projects and just study by myself. It’s just a good, nice atmosphere,” said WKU junior Emily Chambers.
“Since I’m a Music Education major, I’m in FAC and the Music Hall a lot, and it’s really nice to have coffee up here,” WKU sophomore Madison Saker said.
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Monday morning, Western Kentucky University President Timothy Caboni announced that the Commons library facility will finally open next Monday with huge new renovations.
The building shut down in 2019 to make way for new construction, and after hold ups from Covid-19, the Hilltoppers are proud to show off their new 85,000 sq. ft. building.
The finished project, named The Commons at Helm Library, will have quiet study areas, meeting areas and dining facilities on the bottom level.
Students are in for a huge treat. The dining area there will have a Panda Express, Spencer’s Coffee, Moe’s, and Bene Pasta.
WKU director of media relations Jace Lux said, “Prospective students and their families, when they visit campus, are going to be impressed. I think it’s going to be unlike any other space they might see at any other college or universities they might tour.”
Helm originally came to WKU in the 1930s as a basketball arena, and Lux says he feels proud of the way the changes honor the old while bringing in new, cutting edge features as well.
