Cowles Library has long served as a place for students to study and gather for collaborative work. Now, students have more spaces on campus to work individually and with others.
Drake University’s new Johansen Student Center opened in former dormitory Morehouse Hall in January 2025. Since its opening, the building has provided environments for student work, organizations’ events and department offices.
Lynn Sunderbruch, a first-year student who works in Cowles, said places like Starbucks in Olmsted are too loud for her to do productive work, so she continues to utilize the library.
“As somebody who really needs a quiet space to study, I think [the library] is still really valuable,” Sunderbruch said. “We also host a lot of tutoring here, so it’s easier to get help in the library.”
Dr. Jerry Parker, Vice President of Drake University and Dean of Student Affairs, emphasized the variety of study spaces that the new student center offers.
“What Johansen has done is provided one more opportunity for students to consider an area to study, to do group work, to do projects together,” Parker said. “I’ve always heard that we had limited study space. And now we have one more option for students.”
Both Cowles Library and the Johansen Student Center offer spaces for individual study, group meetings and collaboration. Which space students use falls to individual preference.
“Having more options is a good thing,” said Teri Koch, Dean of the Library.
Koch also reflected on the novelty and modern style of Johansen as being appealing to students.
“It’s a beautiful space,” said Koch. “We hope that it will be complimentary for the kind of spaces that we have.”
Student organizations also are finding more flexibility with the options that Johansen presents. For instance, the Adams Leadership Institute, Fraternity and Sorority Life, Unity Roundtable and the Residence Hall Association, are finding office space for their programming in the new student center. Additionally, some organizations that previously had spaces in the library, such as Community Engaged Learning, are moving to Johansen. Organizations like Student Senate will be moving their meetings from the library to Johansen as well.
“There’s just so many different rooms and setups where students can imagine how they envision their program running with some of these spaces, and I think that’s exciting,” Parker said.
The library is also looking for ways to be more accommodating to student needs and wishes as Johansen becomes more integrated into student life.
Koch prompted an open dialogue with students, wishing to know, “What are some things that would make this space more inviting to students?”
Koch and Parker also anticipate that both the library and the student center are going to see increased use when students begin studying for midterm and final exams. Parker believes that Johansen could provide a more comfortable, “soft-seating” environment compared to the hard seating of the Starbucks in the Olmsted Center.
Both Koch and Parker emphasized that the library and the student center are meant to complement each other.
“We don’t want buildings to be competitive with each other,” Parker concluded. “They all serve a purpose.”
