The Keene Faculty Center located in the western wing of Dauer Hall is a multipurpose room used mainly by College of Liberal Arts and Sciences faculty.
Facilities
The high-ceilinged room comprises and has woodpanelling and flooring as well as arched windows. The main floor consists of a commons room, a storage room, and a small kitchen. The commons room has couches, easy chairs, 20 trestle table, and 75 dining chairs. Open to faculty and guests weekdays from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. as a coffee, reading, and discussion room, it can be reserved for use in late afternoons, evenings, and on weekends, for other activities, such as dinners, receptions, concerts, lectures, conferences, and meetings. The gallery on the second floor overlooks the main floor and is used for smaller functions. It can accommodate up to 14 people at a luncheon.
History
The Keene Faculty Center was built in the late 1930s as the Banquet Hall, and it was the upper part of the two-story Food Services building, connected to Florida Union on the east, and the University Dining Hall on the west.. The Banquet Hall opened in 1936 or 1937 and included chandeliers left over from the construction of University Auditorium. Originally the basement part of the room was used as a "short-order café" and bookstore and the upper portion was used for banquets. During World War II, Army officer trainees that lived in UF residence halls used the room as a mess hall. After the war, the hall was designated part of the Florida Union and became known as the Florida Union Social Room. Most "large University dinner events" shifted to The Hub after that building was completed in 1950, but the Union Social Room was still use for banquets occasionally, such as for the annual Caribbean Conference. In the 1950s and 1960s, the room was used as a ballroom and for student activities, including information fairs, student elections, and pep rallies. William E. Rion, an early director of the Florida Union, said that "smaller campus dances" were held almost every Friday night, with "street dances right outside for the larger crowds." Bands would play music from the balcony down to guests below. A series of international dinners was also held in the room. After the Florida Union moved to Museum Road in 1967, Dauer Hall was given to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to alleviate a critical shortage of classroom and office space, and from 1970 to 1997, Social Room was a language lab with close to 50 listening stations. The Social Room was restored to its early 20th-century appearance in a $500,000 project funded by Kenneth and Janet Keene, for whom the room was renamed. The restored room was dedicated on November 12, 1998.
