By Thomas Jilk
Students across the School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences power the Rebecca M. Blank Student Commons, a hub of learning and collaboration in Morgridge Hall.
“Walk in and look up,” says Gabrielle Czeremuga x’27, a Computer Sciences (CS) and Information Science double major. That’s where you’ll find her, on shift as an information circulation student assistant in the Rebecca M. Blank Student Commons, a thriving student hub anchoring the second floor of Morgridge Hall.
From the desk, Czeremuga said, “I see math on the whiteboards, chemistry, biology, diagrams of buildings” — signs of students from all over campus converging and connecting.
After just one semester, the Commons, also affectionately known as “The Blank Space,” has emerged as a wildly popular study spot and an epicenter of student collaboration, within and beyond the School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences (CDIS).
“There’s a space for student org leaders, there’s a space for undergraduates, there’s a master’s student lounge, there are study rooms,” Czeremuga added. “Students have been at the center of this place since the beginning.”
Student-focused, student-powered
The Commons was designed to spark interdisciplinary collaboration and empower students to succeed at UW–Madison. Commons Director Rebecca Millerjohn MA’16 and librarians Patrick Leeport and Savannah Carr oversee the space, which features a full-service information and reference desk and a browsable library collection of relevant print and digital reference materials.
Adjacent to the library, the student organization lounge offers lockers and event space for more than 40 CDIS student clubs, and the undergraduate and master’s student lounges provide ample room to eat lunch, unwind, or lock in and study with views overlooking the lively thoroughfares of central campus.
More than 25 students currently work at the Commons, powering day-to-day operations and assisting students, staff, and visitors with a wide range of questions. A few of them — students in the Information School’s MA Library & Information Studies program — work as reference managers: student librarians-in-training providing resources and professional information-seeking assistance. During open hours, there is always at least one reference manager on duty at the Commons.
The rest of the student staff, mostly undergraduates across CDIS programs, serve as information circulation assistants, often answering questions like “how do I print?” and “where is my classroom?” and “where is my advisor’s office from here?” (Answer: adjacent to the Commons, also on the second floor.)
In Morgridge Hall’s first semester, answering this litany of questions naturally involved “a lot of figuring things out on the spot, responding to questions we may not yet know the answers to ourselves,” said Zahabiyah Boty x’27, a CS major who works as an information circulation assistant in the Commons. During fall’s Count Week, when all university libraries tally up the number of questions they are asked, Commons staff answered 713 questions. That was the second-most on campus, behind only Memorial Library.
“It’s been great to see how all the tools and resources that were planned and built are being used and how the space is being cherished.”
Zahabiyah Boty
A highlight of the opening semester for many students was November’s Long Night Against Procrastination, hosted in the Commons and throughout the building. More than 500 people attended the event, which invited students to come together and not only accomplish their academic goals, but also watch movies, pet service dogs, eat snacks and enjoy each other’s company. The night culminated in a group scream, with students gathering in Morgridge Hall’s outdoor courtyard and unleashing a collective, cathartic scream to purge any remaining stress from their systems.
“Everyone was talking to each other,” Czeremuga said of the event. “It reminded me that not only is the Commons a place for people to collaborate on homework, but to just have a social night together as well,” Czeremuga said.
Viktoria Sakman x’26, a Commons information circulation assistant majoring in CS and Data Science, agreed, adding, “I like that the Commons gives a chance for CDIS students to really have an open area to interact,” she said. “In the old buildings, like the previous CS building, there weren’t as many areas like that,” she noted.
In addition, though, “There’s a common theme of motivation I see,” said Garett Lenzendorf x’27, another Commons staff member studying Information Systems with a Data Science Certificate.
“The Commons has a very productive energy.”
Garett Lenzendorf
Preparing future library leaders
That energy extends to future librarians studying in the Information School (iSchool) and working as reference managers in the Commons. With the move from Helen C. White Hall to Morgridge Hall, the iSchool’s long tradition of training generations of library leaders has entered an exciting new chapter. And for Library & Information Studies students like Todd Rose MAx’26, the Commons offers an ideal training ground for future careers across the library and information professions — a bridge between theory and practice.
Rose, who hopes to work in public libraries after graduation, is also completing a practicum at Middleton Public Library this spring. He said working in the Commons has given him a chance to serve “a little bit of everybody,” just as he would in a public library. After all, it’s not just students making use of the Commons; CDIS faculty and staff, and members of the wider campus community, are frequent visitors as well.
“Some people are coming in looking for a particular book, some have questions about room reservations, and some are just coming to ask about the building because it’s so new,” Rose said. Either way, it gives him a chance to “help somebody get going in the right direction, which is always rewarding.” At the desk, Rose and his colleagues are champions of information access, a guiding and fundamental principle for librarians worldwide.
Ask the student staff to give you their pitches for the Commons, and the answers revolve around versatility and community.
“There’s so much you can explore within the Commons,” said Boty. “It’s a great place to study, but also to meet other people … There’s so much great variety, the views from Morgridge Hall are fantastic, and the café downstairs is nice, too.”
For Lenzendorf, the Commons “really has everything. If you want a study room, a quiet space, or to look out onto the landscapes of Madison from the terraces on the 7th floor — it has anything you’d want in a place to study or meet up with others.”
That’s because the space is “designed for everyone, not just CDIS majors,” Czeremuga emphasized.
Together, their answers point to the same truth: the Commons has quickly become a hub at the heart of campus, offering every student a place to learn, grow, and belong.