UW-Eau Claire officially opened the new student resource center known as “The Hub” this week.

The Hub, located on the first floor of the Davies Center, is a place where students can come on a daily basis to find a range of student life resources and make campus-wide connections.

Each day of the week presents a new theme. Mondays will highlight different services the campus offers. On Mondays, students can find Learning and Technology Services (LTS), the campus police, the health department and city officials.

Tuesday and Thursday will bring in different campus offices, departments and student organizations. Wednesday is taken over by recreation and sports to promote healthy lifestyles.

Friday is a casual day for The Hub. It’s on these days that students can play board games and cards, get to know Student Senate members or watch a movie.

Amanda Thao, communications director for Student Senate, was at the forefront to get this empty room into something that could benefit everyone on campus. Before its official opening, Thao said the room was used as a “hangout place” for Senate members, contrary to the way it was intended to be used when it was first obtained.

Now, Thao said she wants The Hub to be a room that helps empower students.

“If you think about the word ‘hub,’ it’s an interconnecting piece that joins everything together,” Thao said. “As a student coming in, you don’t necessarily know what resources are given to you, and there wasn’t a central area for all these resources to be accessed until now.”

Another reason The Hub was created, Thao said, was to make Senate more accessible. Senate has a hand in everything that happens on campus, but they are viewed as unapproachable, Thao said. The Hub was created to help change that.

“We try and try to reach out to students, but there is always that stigma, a barrier,” Thao said. “This space is almost like an approachable Student Senate.”

Student organizations that want to utilize The Hub can fill out an application on Blusync to “take over” The Hub and showcase their organization to the campus. However, all spots are filled for this semester and organizations will have to wait for the fall of 2018 and spring of 2019 to request a time.

Nicole Miller, the universities activities commission director, said she hopes all students take advantage of what The Hub can offer.

“I hope we reach as many students as we can, especially off-campus students,” Miller said. “Off-campus students sometimes feel disconnected from campus, so we hope this also reaches them to make them feel more welcome.”

Miller said she hopes students who feel disconnected from campus in any way can come to The Hub and find a way to be connected.

Along with daily themes, The Hub will offer daily raffle prizes, giveaways and trivia. Each of the prizes and giveaways will center around that day’s themes.