Michelle Nuñez
Staff Writer
Among the changes prompted by the University’s historically high 2,500-student enrollment this semester, students returned to find classes held unusual places – often in classrooms far from departments’ home bases.
“Math in Hoover – parking is terrible,” said Daniel Talamentes, sophomore behavioral science major. “Having a parking permit makes no difference.”
The math department’s home base is the Mainiero Building, and psychology is based out of Hoover Building.
The addition of new classes, more classes, and in many cases larger classes, has caused the registrar’s office to revamp its system for assigning classroom.
Assignments this fall were made, in most cases, by class size instead of other factors such as departmental and space specifications.
As a result, students are finding themselves in classrooms often far from their majors’ home bases.
According to Registrar Marilyn Davies, the process for placing classrooms is lengthy and mainly done electronically, courses that are unable to be placed by the computer are done by hand.
Some students consider going to class in unusual places, odd or out-of-the way on this small campus.
“My creative writing class is in the old book store, it is weird.” said Leslie Becerra Huezo, a junior biology major.
“It is an odd place to have a classroom,” Becerra said. “The class feels crammed, but there are about 15 students in it so we are still OK.”
The shift has put some humanities classes in science labs, and caused some other awkward classroom assignments.
“My psychology class is in the biology building,” senior liberal studies major Katherine Wills said.
“It is not fun, it is not electronically friendly and the classrooms are freezing.”
Although there are those students that have felt the negative effects of the classroom changes, not everyone is experiencing the crammed, uncomfortable classrooms.
“My biomechanics class is in the business building, but I like it better, the computers help out and we are able to be online,” Gloria Escalante, senior athletic training major.
Some classes are in their original department, but not in the original classroom.
“My cellular biology class is in a geography classroom, it’s not different for me because it is in the same building as my other classes,” sophomore biology major, David Vorobyov said.
“There are still two white boards and the classroom does not take away from my learning experience.”
“My English classroom is small, it feels like a bedroom. The aisles are narrow, and I can feel the person behind me breathing.” Mychal Prieto, junior athletic training major said.
Looking to the future of placing classes the provost and dean are in discussion about what route will be taken if more classes are added to the campus.
Michelle Nunez can be reached at michelle.nunez@laverne.edu.
