If the Roukema Center is going to be used for conferences, it needs more flexible space than it seems to have.  Offices on the first floor for international/multicultural faculty/staff, a nice lobby for receptions, and break-out rooms on the second floor for small conferences.

     We need classrooms for the future, not the past.  More and more of my students seem to bring their laptops to class. Therefore, those chairs with arms need to be replaced with moveable tables, suitable for holding a laptop computer.  I really hope the tables WILL be movable--the ones in A105 are not and it's impossible to teach a class with a variety of teaching methods if people can't even move their chairs.  If the tables are moveable, they can be used in the summer and January for conferences which may require a different configuration of the rooms. I don't know how far along we are thinking about an ethernet, but if we're not considering it or it's many years into the future, we need plugs, etc. for computers.  

     Why ALL 40-seat classrooms?  We need a variety of classrooms or there will be a kind of "ghetto" of certain courses in certain schools--SSHS and SAB come to mind.  Perhaps the greatest need is for these classrooms, but it would be good to know how many sections of how many courses need what size classrooms.  (This may have been done--I was on my way to Volgograd on the 10th so didn't make it to the Faculty Assembly meeting.) Does a 40-seat classroom mean that all those 35-student sections are on their way to becoming 40-student sections?  That's not necessarily a bad thing--it's just a good idea to be up-front with it rather than design for courses we don't have at present.

     Why only three floors?  G wing is four floors, so couldn't the addition match it?  We might also consider moving a School to that wing, with office space for secretaries, a dean, etc.  Perhaps Education and or Nursing could move over and have more space than they now have--they certainly seems to have enough students!

      A few storage closets would be very handy.  As a college, we have always been desperately short of storage space, and even the physical plant folks need a place for pails, buffing machines, etc.  

     A few thoughts before the concrete is set!  Have a happy new year.

      Sharon