Kristin Buchanan
Staff Writer
It is simply difficult to teach in an environment that does not cater to the needs of both students and faculty.
This and many other opinions have been the center of a heated debate among University of Houston faculty and staff members this month.
As mentioned in Friday's Daily Cougar, several UH faculty members have posted complaints about campus facilities on an Internet ListServe.
"(T)he learning environment reinforces the sense that the students are in a run-down high school, not a university," wrote professor of history Steven Mintz.
Susan Kellogg, associate professor of history, said she was also displeased with the teaching and learning environment at UH.
Classrooms "are laid out in such a way that using audio-visual materials is very difficult," she said.
Professors have also attributed poor learning environments on campus to problems with maintenance.
Shirley Ezell, associate dean of the College of Technology, wrote, "Unfortunately, it seems as though we have forgotten the importance of the classroom learning environment at the University of Houston ... We do not seem to be short of the expertise to create a learning environment, but we do seem unable to spend the resources to maintain the environment for learning."
Others thought the ideal college student could manage to succeed in spite of the obstacles caused by maintenance problems and other distractions.
However, speculations that the learning environment has little to do with a professor's ability to teach and a student's ability to learn were adamantly refuted by many professors.
Car alarms, faulty lighting and leaking ceilings were among the items specifically blamed. Many professors said that, in spite of their many requests for maintenance, nothing has been done to remedy the problems.
In a recent phone interview, Conrad Murphy, manager of the UH Physical Plant, which handles building repairs and maintenance, gave his advise to complainants.
"So far, there have been 24,000 requests for service," said Murphy. "To get something done, professors need to first report to the Central Call Station in the Work Control System at (extension) 3-4948."
Professors are not the only ones who have voiced negative opinions about campus conditions. Many students have issued complaints about building facilities such as the desks, which are bolted to the ground and clustered together in many classrooms.
"The classroom in 110 Cullen is really crowded," said freshman communications major Monica Adams. "We're a little too close for comfort."
Jim Berry, associate vice chancellor of the Facilities Planning and Construction, disputed this complaint.
"First of all, there's been no change because there's been no need for change," he said. "The function for the desks now has remained the same as it was (when they were installed 30 years ago.) The reason for the desks being bolted to the floor is to keep the number of seats in the classroom the same every semester.
"The problem with loose seats is that they're hard to keep up with because they get taken out of the classrooms."
Berry blamed delayed repairs on the university's Deferred Maintenance Program, which began in 1995 as a way to prioritize maintenance efforts.
"When repairs are put off," Berry said, "it's because the department is planning to do renovations in the near future: (In 1995), $12,900,000 was put towards changes resulting from lack of upkeep. It was, in a sense, a rescue operation to put buildings back to their original shape."
Backed-up maintenance problems are not common only to UH, said Berry. As compared to the Ivy League schools that were built at the turn of the century, UH is a relatively new college with very few problems. Nationwide, every college is behind in billions of dollars worth of maintenance, he said.