More Than Just Staff

 The Kehr Union building is well known at Bloomsburg University. It draws students over for many reasons. One reason is the late night wings, which has students of all years in a line which snakes around the lounge or the games room where the boisterous laughter and sound of pool balls clanking can be heard from the hall. No one place in Kehr is similar to another but they all have one thing in common, the staff. Most of the time the sound of the staff talking and laughing with each other can be heard throughout the lounge. Behind the welcome desk they sit nonchalantly with each other. Other times they march in groups around the building doing rounds. "Rounds is a wonderful tour of the building, usually with a partner" one staff member said with a deceitful smile when he said wonderful. This tour takes them to places most students don't know exist from down below the building where the sounds of machines echo throughout to high above the ballroom where they can get a birds eye view. 

                                                                        (fig 2)

The welcome desk, which is just a hop skip and a jump from the husky lounge is where they mainly reside. A giant table with three barriers due to Covid and a handful of chairs (see fig 2). A beautiful row of pictures of each staff member sit on the outside of the desk. The staff usually do homework or talk and sometimes answer questions. Students come up with just one question in mind "Where's the bathroom". "We get that a lot", one staff member chuckled. In between sitting there and talking the staff also do what they call "sets". Sets are setting up areas of the building for events. Many times while the staff  is relaxing a handful of students meander to some seats and talk about their day or this new person they met. One staff member told a story where they had just come back from rounds and they saw two people making out in the lounge. The staff member was taken aback and politely asked the people to chill out or leave. 

  

(fig 3)

The most popular area that the KUOSI operate is the games room. Directly to the right is a staff member that checks the IDs to make sure everyone going in is a student. Once  past them the front desk is usually the next stop where another person sits in front of a horde of different board games and video games(see fig 3). Many nervous freshman mosey to the desk to spy something they fancy. This is not the main event though, the most common thing asked for is pool balls. At the back of the room is a string of pool tables eagerly waiting to be played on. Each night all groups of people come in to play pool to the point where there is more students than tables. Just walking past the games room a cascade of sound hits you, from laughter to the clanking of pool balls to the beat of a famous pop song from the 2000s emitting from Just Dance. "It gets poppin". One staff member remarked while nodding. During rush hours in the games room the person behind the desk for most of the night is frantically grabbing pool balls and helping the many students who want to get on the Wii, barely having time to sit down. The sign in staff member has an easier job but sometimes they'll get a new student who will just walks past them and they staff have to yell for them. "It happens more than you'd think", they noted slowly.  

(fig 4)

The biggest and the hardest place that KUOSI staff operate at is the ballroom. Located at the 4th floor of Kehr, the ballroom houses the biggest events KUOSI has to offer. Every event there is made by the sweat of the staff. The staff walk into the ballroom to do a set as bright eyed and hopeful, they leave with heads down with sweat. The events there are like no other. The 90's night for example has music thumbing out into the hallway, a horde of students at the door waiting to be checked in, piping hot food that makes you salivate. The staff jump in and out of costumes navigating between groups of people(see fig 4). "It's hotter than you'd think in here" one staff member remarked while drenched. The staff members sometimes have to be 4 different mascots. This doesn't stop them though, as the doors slide open it's showtime. They jump out flailing their arms and hyping up the crowd. Foxy the Fox seems to be a crowd favorite because the ballroom erupts when they come out. 

KUOSI staff may not be the reason most people go to Kehr, but the staff do their best to make sure any student who needs help or is just looking to get away gets help. Vibing at the welcome desk to sliding food on peoples plates, they do it all. "It's the most interesting place I've worked at" a staff member announced with a smile. The staff do everything to make sure tomorrow is not the same as today.