ISU Bengal

Issue date: 9/5/07 Section: News

A view from inside of the newly opened Rendezvous Complex.

Construction continues on the Rendezvous Complex.

ISU students took their first steps into the classrooms of the newly opened Rendezvous Complex Monday, Aug. 27, despite the ongoing construction of the building. Currently, there are 32 operational classrooms in the building, of which, only 24 are scheduled to be in use for the fall semester. By the time the construction of the Rendezvous project is completed, a total of 50 classrooms will be available.
"Some classrooms [that are finished] will not be in use until January," said Cheryl Hanson, one of the lead architects of the Rendezvous complex. "Within a year we should see the entire building fully functional."
In spite of the brief, sporadic ruckuses made by drills and fire alarms during classes due to ongoing construction and minor repairs, many students and faculty still found the new rooms to be more accommodating than many of the other classrooms around campus. Greg Olsen, an English graduate student at ISU, commented on the seating arrangements of many of the other classrooms on campus in comparison to those in the Rendezvous, stating, "the old desks around campus seemed to have been designed for 10-year-olds." Olson found the new desks and chairs in the Rendezvous Complex to be "a lot more comfortable."
One of the amenities offered by the new classrooms is an advanced technological set-up, which, in many of the rooms, comes complete with wired computers, large screens and projectors and built in speakers.
Jennifer Brown, Associated Students of ISU President, said, "when I walked into my class on Tuesday in the Rendezvous, one of the first things I noticed was the two big projector screens and I realized students would be able to… see well from every seat in the class."
Brent Wolter, an assistant professor of English, expressed positive sentiments about the technology in the rooms as well.
"In many of the other classrooms around campus, if [professors] want to use technology, such as using a computer to show a slideshow, we have to sign up to use an AV cart beforehand and have to push it to class," said Wolter. "Even then, we don't know if we'll have internet access if we need it due to wireless connectivity problems, but the Rendezvous is wired and ready to go, so we don't have to deal with those type of issues."
While Wolter enjoys the technology, he nonetheless finds fault with many of the rooms. "None of the classrooms I teach in [in the building] have windows, making the rooms seem very sterile and isolated," said Wolter. "It feels like when these rooms were created, [the designers] had a certain type of classroom in mind and I'm not sure that is the kind of classroom environment that most humanities professors would like to have."
Hanson commented on this issue, stating that "while some of the classrooms lack windows, there are trade-offs. For instance, the building offers lots of study room for students with window views for optimal study areas."
While there are some who admire the building and others find it to be cold and "corporate feeling", Hanson said that she encourages everyone to "checkout the building for themselves to see what the Rendezvous has to offer."

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