[Poscgrad] Notice: Grad Lounge Renovation

[Kevin Esterling]

Thanks Donald.

And yes, we finally have the work orders in place to move forward with
renovating the grad lounge into a much-needed classroom space for
discussion sections.

As you all know, we recently renovated the chair's office into a space for
socializing and hosting small meetings, so going forward that room will
serve as the department lounge for grad students, staff and faculty. Please
be sure to use it (and, it has free drinks in the fridge!)

This coming month, Watkins 2149 will be converted into a 30 seat classroom
that will be dedicated to POSC discussion sections. Once it is completed,
we will be able to schedule nearly 60 discussion sections per week in
that room during normal hours. Having control over the scheduling will for
the first time allow us to schedule back-to-back discussion sections so
that your section times are more compactly scheduled. And of course this
will increase the number of sections right here in our hallway rather than
scattered across campus, and also not scheduled at off hours. The
department has over 90 discussion sections total each quarter, so not all
sections will be able to be placed in the new classroom, but most of them
will.

The registrar is currently scheduling room assignments for the discussion
sections for fall 2026, and we cannot start booking the room until it is
completed. So we won't fully be using the new classroom space until Winter
2027. But once the renovations are complete, we will move as many fall 2026
discussion sections into the new space as we can.

Ok, we will send along more updates as we make progress.

Best,
Kevin


Kevin M. Esterling
Professor and Chair of Political Science
University of California Riverside


On Wed, Apr 29, 2026 at 2:34 PM Donald Zarate via Poscgrad <
poscgrad at lists.ucr.edu> wrote:

> Hey, everyone!
>
> Great news - the Barbara Sinclair Graduate Student Lounge (Watkins 2149)
> is finally getting a much-needed upgrade!
>
> Renovations are set to begin next week, and in preparation, we need
> everyone to *remove all personally owned items from the lounge as soon as
> possible*.
>
> *Important dates:*
>
>    - *Monday, May 4:* Deadline to clear out all personal belongings
>    - *Tuesday, May 5:* Last day of access to the lounge
>
> Any items left behind after the deadline may be removed to allow
> renovations to proceed.
>
> We’re excited about the improvements and appreciate your help in getting
> the space ready. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or
> concerns.
>
> Best Regards,
> Donald Zarate
>
> *Political Science Graduate Student Researcher*
> *Pi Sigma Alpha Chapter Mentor*
> *Political Science Graduate Student Association Vice-President*
> 626.629.9891
> _______________________________________________
> Poscgrad mailing list
> Poscgrad at lists.ucr.edu
> https://lists.ucr.edu/mailman/listinfo/poscgrad
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ucr.edu/pipermail/poscgrad/attachments/20260429/eeb41140/attachment.htm>