By Tatyjana Scalisi
Beginning this spring semester, Daemen University decided to transfer and enhance its former gaming room into the Wildcat Den of the campus, introducing several new gaming options for students to enjoy.
Greg Nayor, Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, released an email addressing all students enrolled at the institution stating, “The Wildcat Den has been enhanced with equipment from the former Game Room. Students can now enjoy the Den to eat, socialize, play, and just get away from the world for a little while. We also added additional seating!”
The Wildcat Den is an area located in the Wick Campus Center on the first floor that offers students an area to dine, socialize, form study groups and now includes a new, improved gaming area for people to enjoy.
Nayor’s email additionally informs, “On the first floor of the Wick Student Center, in the former game room, we have opened our new Career Services Center. The new center is based on student feedback to provide a more robust experience for students to find jobs, internships, and just general career advice.”
The Career Service Center’s new location offers a more suitable and accessible environment for students to utilize when searching for internship possibilities or employment opportunities compared to its previous location on the second floor which often went unnoticed.
“The new location is in the Wildcat Den is in a way better area as it brings food and people together. I use the gaming room with some of my friends and to meet new people,” said Daemen University freshman, Abby Keenan.
Outside of the new location, the gaming room has also improved with the addition of an air hockey table, two billiards tables, enhanced ping pong tables, and refurbished equipment that has replaced the original, outdated gear.
“What they had originally was nice, but some of the games and equipment needed upgrades as stuff was wearing down. Now it is much better than the other previous one,” said Keenan.
Despite these upgrades, the gaming room has always been a popular location for both commuter and residential students, serving as a valuable place for people to socialize with others or to just relax.
“The gaming room is important for students to have, especially when they need to take a break from school and or just to chill. For me, I really enjoy playing ping pong the most with my friends whenever I have free time,” said Daemen University sophomore and women’s soccer team player, Emily Mogavero.
Overall, the gaming room has an essential purpose that impacts many students where these upgrades were worthwhile for the college to invest in as it offers an area for students to unwind from stress or just to have fun.
“The only thing I recommend the college doing for the game room is to expand the area because the new location is much smaller than the previous room. If they could make more room and maybe add even more games such as darts it would be even more enjoyable,” said Mogavero.