At the end of last year, Mason Korea embarked on a building renovation project to improve some spaces that were starting to show their age or that had never been used to their full potential. Several areas were renovated—including our student lounge and a new student wellness space—all to great success and just in time for a building that has never been so full of students.
Of all these new spaces, my favorite is the one we created on the fifth floor, out of what used to be a sitting area where very few people ever actually sat. While the large “MASON” foam letters reminded people where they were, they made the space seem more like a gallery than an area to sit and gather. The renovated space, on the other hand, is full of students talking and studying.
My office is also on the fifth floor, and I love seeing this crowded new space every time I walk by. But it’s not just the numbers of students that lift my spirits. I think it is that the space resembles a coffee house, a place much beloved by academics, for whom the coffee house is often an office away from the office, a place to read, think, write, and discuss.
Indeed, the social theorist Jürgen Habermas famously proposed that coffee houses in England and Germany gave rise to nothing less than an idea of general civic participation in democracy and society in the eighteenth century. During that time, anyone who had the price of a cup of coffee could join the discussion of ideas—both political and cultural—that took place over coffee.
I like to think that our students are doing the same thing (alas, at least for now they have to bring their own coffee). Sitting in this welcoming new space studying and talking, they are enriching their lives and preparing themselves to become national and global citizens. This more informal environment also reminds us that education is a necessity and a responsibility, but also a great pleasure.
I reflect too, how Habermas’ history of the coffee house has been criticized for exaggerating the degree of access for all kinds of people that coffee houses allowed—it has been argued, for example, that women were often excluded from coffee house culture. The diversity of our students at Mason Korea (in the picture included with this message they are literally at the table), and at Mason more generally, represents to me progress toward the fulfillment of Habermas’ vision.
The pursuit of self-education, participation in global citizenship, and the expansion of who counts as citizens may seem too weighty a set of meanings to place on students who no doubt are just looking for a nice place to hang out. But I have a lot of confidence in our students. They may not realize—yet—how wonderful their hanging out is. But I think we should.
In closing I also want to thank project manager Alicia Suh and all who worked with her on these renovations for the wonderful job they did. And stay tuned. After several years of holding the entire seventh floor of Mason Korea in reserve, we have now grown to the point that we need to use it. A big renovation and a new opening of our seventh floor is coming this summer.