The Hub is one of three student centers on campus which bring students together and support them during their time at Mason with helpful programs, services, and facilities. The Hub hosts the Student Involvement Office, Student Media, Off Campus Student and Mail Services, and New Student and Family Programs. It opened in the fall of 1982 as Student Union II.
By the fall of 1980, enrollment at George Mason University reached 13,293. In the six years since Mason opened the original Student Union, its student population had more than doubled from 6,134, and the size and design limitations of the original Student Union had begun to manifest themselves. Put plainly, university growth was too much and too fast for the Student Union to keep up.
The Hub opened its doors to Mason students at the beginning of the Fall Semester in 1982. Originally named Student Union Building II (SUB II), it was built into a small hillside and was the building furthest south on the Fairfax Campus at that time. With the exception of a parking lot to its south and the Patriot Center construction site, the entire rest of the campus was covered by trees.
SUB II was a departure from other buildings on campus, which were mostly rectangular buildings constructed mainly of red brick and concrete slab. It was tan in color, shaped like a "V", and constructed of precast textured concrete panels. Its "front" doors on Rivanna Lane opened on the building's third floor. The university bragged about its energy efficiency in a story in the Mason Gazette in August 1982, boasting that its concrete beams helped provide shade for its windows during the summer.
Once open, SUB II's impact was immediately felt by students, faculty, and staff. The new campus bookstore in the building was twice the size of the former in SUB I, and the long checkout lines due to lack of room for cashiers were alleviated. A new larger dining hall added more food choices for the student body, particularly the 944 residents that fall. The large ballroom featured a stage, theatrical lighting, a sound system, and could hold 700 guests. There were several smaller meeting rooms that serve faculty, student, or staff meetings.
While most of the student services offices remained in SUB I, the move of the bookstore and the expanded dining facilities made SUB II a welcome addition for a university whose enrollment was growing by about eight percent each year.
During the 1980s and 90s the SUB II Ballroom was host to speaking engagements by special guest visitors to George Mason. Among them were the Reverend Jessie Jackson, long-time Washington news anchor, Maureen Bunyan, and Senator Joe Biden. This new venue gave students and the entire university community a modern facility in which to experience well-known individuals, up close.
In 2011 an addition was added to the west side of the building, creating the two-story windowed space which houses the Corner Pocket game room. SUB II was renamed The Hub in 2013.
Images
Creator: Carl Zitzman Date: circa 1985
