Nearly a month after the HUB expansion’s grand opening, Penn State officials have confirmed the addition of a swing set to the HUB’s new Green Roof Terrace, the class of 2014’s senior class gift. With the addition, the university officially declared the HUB a playground, despite students adamantly declaring the HUB is not a playground via social media last year.

“We heard what everyone said last year, and it got us thinking. Maybe the HUB should be a playground,” said Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers. “After all, there are always balloons, loud music, and sometimes even those kids on leashes walk through, so we might as well throw some swings in there and make it an official playground.”

The swings make the HUB the first official playground intended for college student usage on Penn State’s campus, and administrators say that if all goes well, we may see the expansion of the playgrounds into other buildings around campus. Some have even gone as far as to suggest that a new class built around these playgrounds could be in the works.

“Why stop with the HUB? We figured, if we could make the HUB that much more fun, why not give Old Main a slide, or even a seesaw outside Willard Building to give the preacher something to keep himself occupied,” Powers said. “We feel that if everyone learns to play nicely, we can even see a kinesiology class coming out about playground etiquette and techniques.”

Initial student reaction has been positive, with many students overjoyed that now they can take all of their pent-up HUB energy and use it productively and without judgement.

“Ever since the whole #thehubisnotaplayground thing, I’ve felt pretty uncomfortable,” one anonymous student said. “I never wanted to play in the HUB before that whole thing — but since then I’ve felt the urge to slide down the stairs, jump on the tables, and use anything I could find as monkey bars. Once I started thinking about the HUB as a potential playground, I couldn’t stop.”

The official declaration of the HUB as a playground will come on the same day as the opening of the new green roof terrace, where university president Eric Barron will take the ceremonial first ride on the swings.

Photo: HUB Expansion