Cardinal Points

Issue date: 12/1/06 Section: News

While the Social Work Department is struggling to find classroom availability, it has come to attention there are several potential classrooms in Ward Hall, located on Draper Street, that are not being utilized for academics but they are being used for storage.

Room shortages in Ward Hall are becoming a challenge for Plattsburgh State University College social work students.

While finding classroom space for next semester has been a problem for multiple departments, according to the PSUC Social Work Department, social work students are at a particular disadvantage as seniors are locked into internship requirements which hinder their schedule flexibility.

"Next semester there's an overload of classes for social work students, Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9:30 a.m. and 3 p.m.. We have a seminar class, which pertains to our internships and 15 people can only be in one class," Dan Arkus, PSUC senior and treasurer of the Social Work Student Association said.

The Social Work Department explained that the registrar's office is using Schedule 25, which while efficient, does not allocate room space that departments are asking for.

"The current process and procedures used for classroom allocation are not meeting the needs of the accredited social work program," according to a Social Work position statement regarding room assignments.

The department is asking for a process after Schedule 25 which would allow for rearranging classroom space.

Arkus noted that Ward Hall has an assortment of potential classrooms that aren't being utilized for academic purposes.

"Why should human bones storage take precedence over social work classrooms?" he asked, referring to Ward Hall's seemingly dormant osteology and archeology labs. "This is a problem that shouldn't even happen."

"(The rooms) serve no purpose whatsoever to a majority of the students," Arkus said, referring also to the second-floor Louise Norton Classic Design Collection Room which houses retro furnishings previously used by the former Department of Home Economics.

"There's a 1970's (vintage) furniture museum that's used only once a year for alumni; - adjacent to that is a broken furniture storage room," he said. "I would like there to be more of an emphasis on classrooms rather than pointless things. We pay $10,000 a year for education, we're not paying to heat and light furniture."

Continued...

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