OU students may discover new quirks to old buildings when classes resume in the fall.Paul Bell, dean of Arts and Sciences and provost of instruction, said renovations to certain classrooms in Kaufman Hall began with the commencement of the spring semester and are continuing through summer.Bell said the updated classrooms will feature larger desk space and more electrical outlets to allow students to use laptop computers during lectures.He said faculty will control lighting from their desks and the handful of updated classrooms will feature wall-mounted video projectors.Bell said poor seating, poor lighting and inadequate desk space were among the top complaints from faculty and students.Some OU professors have noticed the problems."The bad technology in those rooms have been a liability," said Ellen Greene, OU classics professor.Greene said teaching a classics class often requires the instructor to show films during a curriculum. She said the way Kaufman Hall classrooms are now arranged makes it difficult for every student in a class to get an equal visual and audio experience.Greene said she teaches in Kaufman Hall regularly and thinks the new classroom features will be beneficial."It's long overdue," she said. "I look forward to it."Bell said wireless Internet will not be available with the completion of this summer's renovation. He said plans to incorporate wireless Internet are in the discussion stage.Bell said aside from modernizing classrooms, OU is also making structural renovations to classrooms in different ways.Bell said workers removed a wall between two small classrooms to make one larger classroom.Bell said the renovations to Kaufman caused the need for a few summer classes to be moved to other rooms. The relocation does not pose a large problem because of the abundance of empty classrooms during the summer.Judy Stockdale, classroom scheduler for the Office of Admissions and Records, said she shuffled about 20 classes into alternative locations for the renovation period.She said many instructors wanted to remain close to Kaufman Hall, but it wasn't too difficult to rearrange scheduling.Physical Plant employees said they came across minor complications while updating rooms.One employee said workers had to remove some tiling because it contained asbestos.He said the particular type of asbestos was non-friable, which means it cannot be pulverized by hand pressure.He said, however, that the asbestos was not airborne and posed no threat."HazMat pulled it up in a safe manner," he said. "Just like they've done here in the past."Byron Millsap, associate vice president for Administrative Affairs, said OU strictly complies with all laws and regulations governing the treatment of asbestos."As you know, many buildings on most university campuses across the country contain asbestos if they were constructed prior to the 1980s," he said. "The existence of asbestos poses no threat to life or health if it does not become friable and airborne."Bell said the classroom renovation program, which is updating a combined total of nine rooms in Dale and Kaufman Hall, is currently estimated to cost under $300,000. Millsap said renovations are scheduled to be complete August 15.
hello there & you too