The new 10,000-square-foot facility will provide gathering and study space to students in the Historic Neighborhood.
Elon’s Historic Neighborhood in the heart of its campus will soon have a central gathering space for students, faculty and staff.
The new LaRose Student Commons has been completed, with the 10,000-square-foot, two-story facility adjacent to Long and Mooney buildings to officially open to all on Monday, Sept. 16. Faculty and staff with offices in the building began moving in on Sept. 11.
The completion of the building comes a little more than a year after its groundbreaking on an August morning when hundreds of students, faculty, staff and friends gathered to celebrate the start of construction. “It will be a place for people to come together,” President Connie Ledoux Book said that morning. “It signals the importance of relationships here at Elon.”
The construction of LaRose Student Commons meets a need for students living in the Historic Neighborhood who have not had a place within the neighborhood for larger gatherings. The space can be used to host speakers, small dinners and residence life programs, and includes study space for students. LaRose Student Commons will primarily serve students living in West, Sloan, Virginia, Smith, Carolina and Hook, Brannock and Barney residence halls, as well as the pavilions in the Lambert Academic Village and East Neighborhood residence halls.
The building includes:
- A 1,200-square-foot activity room on the first floor with comfortable seating that could host a variety of gatherings, including neighborhood meetings led by Residence Life staff
- Ample space for students to work on group projects or gather for late-night conversations
- A game room with pool table, table tennis, an area for video gaming
- A 3,000-square-foot event space with catering kitchen on the second floor that could host student group meetings and events, guest lectures featuring Elon faculty scholars, career services seminars and discussions following major campus speakers.
- A kitchen for students to prepare food.
- Office space for the Historic Neighborhood faculty director and Residence Life staff.
LaRose Student Commons was made possible by the generosity of Elon alumna Gail H. LaRose ’64 and her daughter, trustee Michelle LaRose, who made a $2.5 million gift to name the new space.
A formal dedication of LaRose Student Commons is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2, during Homecoming 2019.