Upgrades make Trail Room a fun, social spot

Renovations include coffee bar, create lively environment in the newly-named Fowler Student Center

The recently renovated Trail Room, commonly truncated to Troom, now offers different aesthetics, services and events than its previous iteration.

The Troom’s structural innovations include an exposed concrete ceiling, a raised wooden platform, new booths and chairs, bigger and brighter lights and a coffee bar. A crowd favorite is the coffee bar’s fine selection of drinks from Portland Coffee Roasters with at least six different flavors of syrups. The biggest change, however, has been how many students occupy the space throughout the week.

Organizations, such as Campus Activities Board (CAB), have begun hosting events in this new social hub. Implementing weekly activities has allowed many students to take a break from their laptops and laugh in the same space where they eat and study. 

Ellery Bloom ’25, a community engagement member for CAB, has noticed higher turnout and improved participation since they began hosting events in the Troom.

“Before the Troom was renovated, CAB did more events in Tamarack, which was pretty out of the way for the students who didn’t live in that area,” Bloom said. “People are always already in the Troom this year, so people who aren’t there for the events we are hosting will often step in during their meals or study sessions. The Troom is also so much livelier this year, which helps us bring energy to our events.”

CAB plans a weekly rotation of events, including “Troom Thursdays” from 7 to 8 p.m. Every Thursday, you can find CAB members leading students in different activities, such as bingo, trivia, s’mores assembling, art projects and karaoke. 

“I have led three events once a month, but throughout my time in CAB, I have been to all of the different types of events,” Bloom said. “I’m biased because I lead this, but my favorite event is bingo.”

While there is a general rotation of events, CAB frequently includes themed nights. In the past few weeks, these have included a Harry Potter night and Paint Along with Bob Ross night. 

“Harry Potter trivia night was our biggest turnout for a Troom Thursday,” Bloom said. “A few people even dressed up.” 

For Hailey McHorse ’25, the Painting with Bob Ross night was a way for her to relieve stress and spend time trying something new with friends.

“My friends and I stayed the whole time and enjoyed having the opportunity to use art supplies that we normally don’t have access to,” McHorse said. “It was really nice to take a break from studying that week to just paint along to Bob Ross.”

For competitive events, CAB offers varying prizes for the winners. Last week, for bingo, the prizes included Panasonic headphones, a Stanley thermos and a panda mug. Additionally, CAB is offering a Troom Thursday raffle where students can enter themselves into the raffle every time they go to an event. At the end of the semester, CAB will choose someone to win a set of AirPods.

Although the network outage has decreased the number of students in the Trail Room during meal times these past few weeks, attendance is still high. As a result of the renovations and efforts from CAB, the Troom has transformed from being just a cafeteria into a lo-fi coffee shop, a dungeons and dragons playroom, a karaoke bar and a late-night art studio.