Problems with Humanities Building

Although it is a brand new, teachers and students are having many problems with the renovated Humanities building.
Teachers love the new state of the art building, built with computers, TV projectors/monitors, fully air conditioned, but they are still finding small glitches here and there which they hope would be fixed. “They paid for this building, everything should be working right now,” Evelyn Uyemura, ESO professor uttered in disappointment. Among some of the complaints that teachers have are; broken lights, elevators, missing hooks on bathrooms, extension cords and much more.
Uyemura was very unhappy when talking about the new Humanities building. “It’s very irritating because the building is less than a year old and some things don’t even work,” Uyemura said angrily. She is also disappointed that it’s the minor things that are not working which should have been fixed before the building was opened. “Some of the lights make this tea-kettle like noise which is very irritating, certain doors in the building won’t lock, I mean it’s ridiculous,” Uyemura explained.
The main issue that Uyemura and some of the other teachers complained about, were the elevators in the building. Teachers are quickly realizing that the elevators in the building are very inconsistent. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. The elevator issue concerns ESL Prof. Rebecca Bergeman. “One of my friends got stuck in an elevator and it took her awhile to get help,” Bergeman proclaimed. Besides being stuck in the elevator, one of her main concerns are handicapped students that need to get to class. “What about handicap students that need to get to class, what will they do when the elevators won’t work and they need to get upstairs?” Bergeman asked with concern.
Bergeman also thinks that officials need to cater to students. With no benches or chairs in hallways, students find themselves having to sit in the hallways, sometimes even lying down on the concrete floor. “They need to put benches or bleachers on those hallways for the students. I always see them sitting down, and I think to myself, poor kid, the floor must be really cold,” Bergeman acknowledged. Minor things are also being brought up that need to be fixed. Since some of the hooks in the girl’s bathrooms are broken, students and teachers have to put their bags/backpacks on the floor. “They need to fix those hooks in the bathrooms or they should at least put a table in there so that we wouldn’t have to put our stuff on the floor,” Bergeman complained.
It’s not just certain things that need to be fixed, but the temperature as well. Teachers are finding the new building to be very cold. ESL Professor, Matt Kline thinks that it is too cold in the new building. “For some weird reason, the AC is very cold in this building,” Kline sarcastically said. Kline also wishes that officials would decorate the concrete walls with the holes in them. He finds them very awkward and annoying at the same time. “What is up with those walls, why do they have holes in them, I don’t know,” Kline questioned.
Since there are certainly countless glitches in the Humanities building, Kline thinks that they are all fixable. “Don’t get me wrong, I love this new building, better than the old one but they should fix the little things here and there such as the spacing in the rooms, they are too tight. The trashcans in the men’s room are too small so they always overflow with paper towels. And I really hope that they would decorate the walls a little bit,” Kline suggested.
Not only are the teachers frustrated, but the students as well. 25 year-old Khalil Abdul-Tariq, Physics major doesn’t like the fact that there are no place to sit in the hallways. Abdul-Tariq has an hour between his classes and he likes the Humanities building because it is air conditioned. But he doesn’t like the fact that he has to sit on the floor. “It’s cool in the building and I come in to chill because it’s so hot outside. Unfortunately, I have to sit on the floor. I hope they at least put benches in or something,” Abdul-Tariq uttered in disappointment.
Some students don’t like the unreliability of the elevators. They simply cannot trust the elevators for the fear that they might break down. Lisa Tran, Child Development major always uses the stairs even though she would rather take the elevator because her class is on the 3rd floor. With the hot weather and the physical need to walk up the stairs, Tran says it’s very inconvenient. “My class before this is all the way by the Social Science building. Then I have to come here, take all these stairs, just to get to class. A reliable elevator would be nice but I’m scared that the ones here might break down,” Tran expressed fearfully.
With all of these problems being brought up, officials are finding solutions to the problems. Bruce Hoerning, assistant director of facilities, says that some of the problems being brought up have already been fixed. “As far as the hooks go in the bathrooms, we have ordered hooks and they are on their way,” Hoerning said. To accommodate students with benches in the hallways, Hoerning states that they are looking into it. “About the benches, we are certainly looking into that matter as we do want students to have a place where they can sit or study,” Hoerning explained.
But as far as the main issues go, such as elevators for teachers and students, and also push buttons on doors for handicap students, Hoerning revealed that those issues have been fixed. “All three entrances to the building have push buttons that have door operated switches for handicap students. As far as the walls go in the building, we won’t be changing those anytime soon,” Hoerning said. About the elevator issue, Hoerning states that the problems are the no longer an issue. “The emergency phones next to the elevators are not working at the moment and we are getting those fixed and they have nothing to do with the elevators. All of the elevators in the building are working properly and functioning as they should so there is no need to worry,” Hoerning validated.
The problems in the Humanities building are easy to point out. But what is even easier to point out are the solutions to the dilemma. “Everything is up and running as of right now, and as far as the minor problems go, we’ll get those taken care of,” stated Hoerning.