Price Center

Price Center is a student center located in the center of the University of California San Diego campus, just south of Geisel Library. As one of the largest student centers in the country, Price Center serves more than 30,000 visitors a day. Price Center offers a variety of services, places, and spaces geared to the needs of students including fast food restaurants, the campus bookstore, a movie theater, and offices for various student organizations.HistoryIn the early 1980s, UC San Diego found that its existing Student Center in Muir College was unequipped to handle the more than 12,000 students that were enrolled at the university. As a result, UC San Diego suffered from reduced student involvement and a sense of apathy across campus. Additionally, the lack of on-campus social space contributed to the fact that nearly 60% of UCSD students at the time commuted to school. In November 1983, a survey of 2,000 UCSD students indicated a pressing need for a new student union. That same school year, students passed a referendum that raised their student fees from $12.50 per quarter to $37.50 per quarter, for the purpose of constructing a University Center that would house fast food restaurants, a movie theater, and offices for student organizations. The proposed University Center, sited southeast of the existing Central Library, was originally estimated to cost $9 million to construct, but the Kaplan McLaughlin Diaz design approved by the UC Regents would be an $18.6 million facility with an added pub, ballroom, and bookstore.