Growth and initiative at F&M is often seen through construction. Currently, the Brooks Commons and new College House are being built, and President Fry recently announced the Weis College House and building efforts with which they are associated. Every school year, it seems as though I could describe a new project happening on campus. I am privileged to have arrived at the College in 2007, shortly after buildings such as the Ann and Richard Barshinger Life Sciences and Philosophy Building and College Row were erected.
Even as a Public Policy/BOS and Economics student, I’ve been able to enjoy the masterpiece that is LSP, and I thank my lucky stars that I have such an incredible building through which I can show groups as a tour guide. New additions (and even renovations) should be useful and provide the student body with as many opportunities as can fit within their walls. However, despite its usefulness to a certain extent, one of the relatively newly finished buildings on campus, the Patricia E. Harris Center for Business, Government and Public Policy, does not live up to its potential in terms of space efficiency and offerings.
Right when you walk through the building’s main doors, you instantly notice the generosity it took to complete the renovations from the former Fackenthal Laboratories. The building truly highlights the persuasiveness and excellence of President Fry (as well as others who headed the fundraising efforts of the project, namely Kenneth Duberstein), as even the lobby is named for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Admittedly, the donors should be proud of what the renovations have produced, seeing as it must be difficult to turn science labs into a state-of-the-art business and government facility. The complaints I raise about the building are in no way meant to diminish the majestic qualities and modern features of the complex. Rather, it is ludicrous that such money went into building a haven for primarily professor offices, instead of classrooms and other academic workspaces.
No offense to Harris or Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the latter of the two contributing much money toward the building, but the building could have been better divided. The first time I walked in the building was this past summer—I ran into Professor Alan Glazer, who gave me a tour of the new digs. I was in awe of the technology in each room of the building, the modern-looking common spaces, and the fine detail of even the smallest areas. However, despite Professor Glazer’s superb tour-giving, a question later stood out in my mind:
Where are the classrooms?
Most of the building’s space is used as offices for faculty and professional staff. Granted, the classrooms the building does contain are about as modern as typical classrooms could be, but it is a disgrace that the majority of the space goes to professors. F&M professors are, all in all, excellent at what they do, and they deserve all the credit in the world for contributing to the society and institution; their accessibility and general knowledge and professionalism are things that certainly drew me to this place. I just don’t think the newest building on campus (which houses a few of the College’s most popular and respectable academic programs) should be predominantly catered to them.
Given my major, it would be safe to assume I should have the majority of my classes in the building that houses the aforementioned departments. Last semester I took BOS341 (Marketing) and BOS/PUB 371 (Business Advocacy), and both courses were held in Stager Hall. I can understand Marketing not being held in the Harris Center (even though, as a 300-level course, one could think differently), but why would a BOS/PUB-designated course not be held in there? I had an excellent experience in the class, partly due to the media Professor Baulig used in showing how corporations represent themselves in the face of government and how the policy process plays itself out. Such a class would be more than appropriate for the Harris Center, and it’s absolutely baseless that a course that is designated as being BOS/PUB isn’t held in the building specifically for BOS/PUB.
This semester I have two courses in the HC, but one of them is held in Room 105, which, according to my professor, has 16 seats. My class happens to have 16 students, and since it’s a seminar (and the professor engages in discussion and should have a place to sit), it should be close but not cramped. I would like the Office of the Registrar to prove that not one other classroom on campus is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 1:00 p.m. and 2:20 p.m.
Credit must be given to the building for housing the eLearning Lab, the Innovation Zone, and various digital media production mechanisms. It’s always good to mollycoddle faculty, but it should not be at the expense of students. I always tell my tour groups that it is one of the best times in the College’s history to be studying business, government, or public policy, which is true. But how and why can one get overly excited about a building whose majority of classrooms do not have a clock? Or where professors fumble over how to use the provided technology? Why was space that could have been used for classrooms instead given to professors for lounging in their offices (while possibly watching television on their flat panel screens)?
The Harris Center is overhyped, and even though it offers some spaces where students can work, it is simply not what it should be. A few Bloomberg terminals, one collaboration suite, a few incredible pieces of educational technology, new furniture galore, and interesting artwork should not conceal the fact that F&M’s “newest” prized possession is glamorous mainly for faculty.
