Current Conditions
- Alumni Hall is the only large flat floor space that allows for a variety of setups and food. The need is far greater than it can support, including student social events, poster sessions, lectures, political candidate visits, blood drives, conferences, and alumni events. It is the only large space C&E can schedule up to 250 (excluding Hop events) events per year.
- Academic Departments control their classrooms 24/7, resulting in times when the spaces remain unused. Concerns about access, maintaining equipment, cleaning, and losing control lead Departments to hide valuable space.
What we need
Students event/activities
- flexible spaces with movable furniture for activities like singing rehearsals, activities that involve movement, weekly meetings, informal gatherings.
- Student activities almost always have food involved so a place to set it up is important.
- Room capacity ranging from 30 to 50 .
- Rooms located near a larger atrium-like space where they can move out to for associated activities.
- examples are Carson 60, Reed and Thornton, Fairchild 101
Centers programing, Conferences, co-curricular meetings, and events with a guest speaker
- large capacity ranging from 40 to 300
- audience style seating.
- space at front for a panel that is visible to all attendees.
- a lectern or front location for a speaker.
- good technology for presentations (e.g. Kemeny 008)
- examples are Moore B03, Oopick, Filene, LSC 201 and 202, Moore 110.
Air conditioning is important for both types of use.
How we get there
- Develop a campus wide Classroom, Seminar & Conference Room Use Policy which includes Departmental space.
- Involve C&R in design process of new spaces.
- Make better use of existing spaces to free up classrooms for student, Centers, and conference activities.
- Get Academic Departmental classrooms into a formal renovation/updating schedule.
Questions/issues to address
- Catering – currently food is not allowed in classrooms, should food be allowed? Space for it to be put out needs to be developed and cleanup procedures need to be created.
- Departmental approval – Should a department have a say in approving events in classrooms outside of the class day? In some cases, they do. For example, the Tower Committee in Fairchild and LSC concerns about the research areas. This adds a burden and, in some situations, gives the resident department an uneven power dynamic.