But Plants--who has been one of the council's most vocal advocates of creating a student center--said he was concerned the administration would do a mediocre job renovating the building and call it a full-fledged student center.
"If it becomes a really crappy student center, then there's obviously still a battle to be fought," Plants said.
According to Illingworth, however, Plants' fears cannot necessarily be avoided. Even if all the space outside of the Pudding theater--which administrators have promised to keep as a theater--were used for social space, Illingworth said, it still might not be enough to meet students' expectations.
"[The Pudding building] can't be all things to all people," Illingworth said. "But it's big enough to accommodate everybody."