Five-year plan to renovate classrooms to begin this summer

By Craig Chamberlain

A dozen classrooms in Gregory Hall will get major renovation work this
summer, at a cost of $400,000.

By the end of the summer of 1995, plans are to spend another $1.6 million
on other classrooms - another dozen in Gregory Hall, eight in Davenport
Hall, three in the Transportation Building, and one each in Mumford Hall
and Roger Adams Lab.

That adds up to $2 million spent in fiscal year 1995, and campus
administrators hope to spend $2 million for the same purpose in each
of the subsequent four years.

If the necessary funding can be maintained, the five-year, $10 million
program will renovate all of the general-purpose classrooms and auditoriums
deemed to need work - about 70 percent of the 400 on campus.  Additional
money - about $370,000 in fiscal year 1995 and about $2 million total over
five years - will be used to purchase new audio, video and projection
equipment.

"That's the plan, but we have to be able to come up with the money,"
says Larry R. Faulkner, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs.

The sources of funds have been determined for the coming year's work.
If the university receives the state appropriation specified in Gov. Jim
Edgar's recommended budget, the campus can be more confident in proceeding
with the full plan, Faulkner said.

According to Walter C. Tousey, associate vice chancellor for academic
affairs, about one-third of classroom renovation funds and about
one-quarter of equipment funds are likely to come through campus
reallocation.

The classroom renovation plan was developed by the Office of Facility
Planning and Management based on recommendations in a spring 1992 report
from the Urbana-Champaign Senate Task Group on Instructional Facilities
Development. In the process of development, the office consulted with
a Task Group on Classroom Remodeling.

In recent years, the funds available for classroom renovation have been
limited, said Don Wack, associate director of the Office of Facility
Planning and Management. From about 1987 to 1992, the budget available for
such work, coming mostly from state capital appropriations for specific
projects, was only $250,000 to $500,000 per year.

"We were just kind of keeping even," Wack said, with the emphasis put on
maintaining larger classrooms, seating over 200. "We were fixing up large
rooms and putting out fires in smaller rooms," he said.

Over the last two years, spending was increased to $750,000 to $1 million
per year, Wack said. Originally put together on a 10-year timetable, the
classroom renovation plan would have continued spending at about $1 million
per year.

But Chancellor Michael Aiken made classroom renovation an even higher
priority after coming to campus last summer and asked that funding be
found to accomplish the plan in five years rather than 10.

In explaining his support, Aiken pointed to the university's basic mission
of research, teaching and public service. "What we want is to be excellent
in all of these areas," he said. "What that means is we need up-to-date and
modern classrooms just as we need up-to-date and modern research
facilities."

Quality instruction, Aiken said, is "not just what the faculty member does
in front of the classroom or what the TA does in front of the discussion
group, it's the quality of the facilities."

According to Faulkner, who became provost in January, other problems took
priority in recent years, and "we didn't have the latitude" to do more with
classrooms. Much of recent construction and renovation work has been on
research and service space, and "it's time we pay attention to our
instructional space," he said. "I think it's the right thing to do."

Many rooms are not up to modern standards, especially for accommodating
audio, video or projection equipment. "A lot of rooms don't even have basic
electrical service, or outlets aren't in the right places," Faulkner said.
Many also are lacking adequate projection screens, proper lighting, quality
blackboards, shades for blocking out sunlight, air conditioning and modern
seating.

Wack noted that some rooms in Davenport Hall probably have not been painted
in 20 years, and some rooms in David Kinley Hall still have the original
seating.

The improved classrooms will benefit teachers as well students, Faulkner
said. "I think faculty members who teach in them teach better, and the
students learn better."

Aiken said the classroom renovation work is "really the first leg of a
three-leg stool" that represents needed investments in instructional
facilities over the coming years.

The second leg represents significant spending in multimedia and other
educational technology for classrooms, so that instructors can take
advantage of the latest teaching methods and resources. The size or
cost of this effort has yet to be determined, Aiken said.

The third leg represents spending needed to renovate instructional labs,
currently estimated at $25 million to $35 million. Administrators do not
yet have the full picture in this area, and a source or sources for those
funds has not be identified, Aiken said.

With classrooms being taken out of service on a regular basis over the next
few years, those remaining will get a little more use, meaning a few more
early morning and late afternoon classes. And some instructors may have to
teach in unfamiliar settings for a semester or two, Wack said.

"We're trying to do everything we can during the summer," he said, but a
lot of work will still have to be done in fall or spring.

"I think it's going to be more inconvenience than disruption," Wack said.