dekalb – Students at NIU’s Latino Resource Center now have a new room where they can rest, relax, and nap.
The LRC is one of three resource centers at NIU that has added a Wellness Lounge, a space designed for students to relax and de-stress.
“From mid-to-late fall semester, we were able to provide resources like this for wellness spaces for our Latinx Resource Center, Undocumented Students, and Black Studies Center,” said Associate Aubrey Hens. . Student Wellness Director.
The lounge was funded by the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Grant, a federal fund aimed at retaining low-income, underrepresented or first-generation students.
All wellness lounges are equipped with furniture, booklets and toys for recreation and relaxation.
Elvia del Llano Menéndez, assistant director of the Latino Resource Center, said she consulted with students to recommend personal items related to the LRC for the lounge.
“We asked a lot of our students throughout the semester and last semester, ‘If you could have anything, what would bring you peace, what would make you feel relaxed? ?’” Menendez said.
The answers were board games, bean bags, mental health resources, and most notably, hammocks.
Students arrived to celebrate the lounge’s opening on Tuesday around 4:30 p.m.
Graduate student Hector Dondiego complimented the room’s interior design, calling it attractive and comfortable.
“What really struck me was the colors and then the walls, like the paint on the walls. It’s so nice and bright,” Don Diego said. “It’s a space I actually want to be in.”
The once graduate student office is now painted turquoise with fairy lights and flowers along the walls. The room has 4 bean bag chairs and a hammock, which can be used for resting or taking a nap.
LRC director Luis Santos Rivas joked to the students: “You can take a nap there. Don’t fall. You’ll be in trouble.”
There are fidget toys and charging outlets, as well as adult coloring books, board games, and an entire bookshelf filled with mental health resources.
LRC plans to produce Spanish translations of these books in the future, which will also be available in the Undocumented Student Resource Center.
Daniel Arenas Perez, an NIU alumnus and member of the Sigma Lambda Beta fraternity, said he hopes to use the space for fraternity meetings and is glad LRC has a new space.
“I feel like this (Latino Resource Center) has always been home for our organization,” Perez said. “We’ve always had a branch here and pretty much always meet here, so it’s kind of nice to see it renovated.”
