Tiered tables with extra floor seating – what is the good, the bad, and what “really needs work” in Morrison 100? Not many rooms can handle 170+ seats, especially with tables, what do you suggest to make the space more effective and modern?
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Please report, or ask your office staff to report, maintenance or technology issues in any classroom!
We have the good fortune to “inherit” 66 very good student desks for the floor in MH 100. This will go a long way toward unifying the look of the room. We will receive 20 chairs now, and 46 more sometime in September. We already have 10-12 of this color and style. The chairs are green so I am going to ask that the painted wall stripe around the room be painted to match.
I have made some small progress on MH 100. The damaged desks and tables are gone. I have discovered that the Elements chart at the front of the room can be taken down. I will place a work order for that. I will also place a work order to get the carpets cleaned. I have a plan to move the metal cabinet at the front of the room to the back by the back door. I can also place a work order to have both doors unlocked during daytime hours.
Addressing the loose desks – we will probably have to continue to use that style of seating. There are several classes held in MH 100 that require these desks to be moved over to make floor space.
Is there a way to darken the windows in Morrison 100? The brightness of the room, though nice, makes it hard at time for students, especially those in the back to see darker images on the projection screen.
1) Remove the portable chairs, either add more tables or make the chairs permanent.
2) Position white board somewhere usable: not behind the pull down screen.
3) Students need access to classroom after class starts. The door in the back is always locked. When a student comes in late they must come in by way of the front of the class; unacceptable!
4) Get rid of the lockers.
5) Sound proofing the room. Anytime (and in the spring it is common), construction and any work is done outside the room, it is very is a distraction to the students and very hard to hear the speaker.
6) Automatic shades. Often times they are not closed and I for one am not tall enough to reach them to close them.
One more thing: Add more computer ports to the tables/floors/walls so students can plug in their computers.
I think the door locking issue may vary from instructor to instructor. It would be nice if we were given a choice – that is, the ability to lock or unlock the doors as we see fit. I typically ask that both doors locked from the outside, and close them both at 10 after because I don’t want students who are that late coming in an disrupting classes.
Jane
(A comment came in by email)
Re: Morrison 100
If there were some way to fix the floor seating–the conglomeration of mismatched chairs is difficult to organize and is also unattractive. (noted)
Also, there seem to be some technical issues in the room related to the use of clickers by students. (will report this)
MH 100 is the blight of BIC and Morrison Hall. This is truly our multipurpose room. We hold classes there, group meetings, large meetings, new student activities, and specialty meetings throughout the year – including the summer. The picture herein makes it look nice and clean. It is neither. We need, at a minimum, new carpet and auditorium style seating with appropriate exit capability. As it is configured now, the lack of exit aisles is, in my opinion, a safety hazard. A couple of built in closets for the yoga mats would be helpful as well. The walls have been “touched up” with paint too many times. So a complete repainting is appropriate.I don’t mind the wooden walls so much as they convey some of the antiquity of the facility. They could be properly finished and would look very nice – providing you get rid of that awful gold colored border at the top of the wood walls. The biggest consideration of any changes is the capacity of the room. Currently it hold 179 students – we need to keep that number at a minimum. I have recently replaced the computer system for faculty – but the projector in the ceiling is on it’s last leg. Already it will not go up and down (into the ceiling). It got stuck in the ceiling, so IT just “fixed” it into the down position. There should be some sort of stool for faculty to use at the tall desk. As mentioned by the previous writer, you cannot use both the white boards and the projection system – which is troublesome. So the whiteboard should be moved – but you almost have to be the Jolly Green Giant to write on them such that students can see due to the ways the seats are arranged.
I am excited that anything can be done to improve MH 100 at this time.
Morrison 100 needs renovation – walls, floors, desks, ceiling, storage. If I were recruiting students to come to Baylor, I would avoid showing them (or their tuition-paying parents) this classroom. It’s awful. The paneling on some of the walls in the room is a testament to what the room used to be a long, long time ago. Unfortunately, that same paneling also accentuates the years of neglect.
The picture provided gives a much cleaner look than the reality. At the front of the room, some of the furniture is broken and unstable. The “storage” is an open wire shelf (front of room, on left) that looks rickety – I’ve not used it or touched it. I’m afraid it might fall. The other storage is old metal cabinets (front of room on right) that are warped and ugly.
The first several rows of student seating are a hodgepodge of individual desks. The long student tables that fill the remainder of the room are old and in need of refurbishment or replacement. They extend entirely to the wall on the right. The chairs the students at these tables are old and need replaced. The floor’s angle is probably as good as it can be, but perhaps a ramp on the side, instead of stairs, might be better for handicap accessibility. Student seating should be consistent throughout the room.
Lighting and computer/instructor’s station are good. However, the relative positions of the projection screen and whiteboard need to be corrected. The whiteboard is of no use if the projection system is in use. A good instructor can use both in one lecture and make the two work together – that is, if they’re both visible throughout the lecture. HOWEVER, the depth of the room makes extensive use of the whiteboard impractical if the room is full. Perhaps a Smart Board that projects on a different screen is a better solution than a whiteboard.
The ELMO (document projector) is not properly connected to the projector, and hasn’t been for months.
Yes, there is a lot of damaged furniture at the front. Good points and perspective, thank you. I will enter a work-order for Classroom Tech to check out the document camera.