MSU purchased the 29,984 square foot Christ Academy building adjacent to the campus in 2009 to offer additional space for the music department, student media, including the Wichitan, and the Counseling Center. The building has been unoccupied since its purchase. The interior portions of the building are not suited for higher education needs and are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and will require major renovation.
The university has chosen to attack the project all at once, rather than in phases. This will reduce cost by $1 million, according to university President Jesse Rogers, and will give all parties an opportunity to input their needs more appropriately.
The Wichitan is glad to see the university is finally taking the time to tend to less glamorous programs on campus.
While the university prides itself on the Dillard College of Business Administration or the McCoy Engineering College, students in the College of Fine Arts are feeling less important than their peers.
Since August, only two colleges have not received substantial alumni donations: education and fine arts. There are certainly alumni out there that would love to support the fine arts, but the administrators as well faculty and staff need to actively seek these donations.
When it comes to enrollment, Fain is by far the smallest college at the university and there are definitely reasons behind it.
The Wichitan is located at the heart of the Fain Fine Arts building so we see first hand the downfalls of being in this building, a building that can barely accommodate the students it has, much less an increasing number of students.
If you have ever had a class in Fain you will understand what that means. The computer lab, B105, is the definition of claustrophobic, inefficient and ancient. Cramming 21 students into a closet-size classroom that should only fill 18 is unacceptable.
This building has also been criticized for not being accessible to students with disabilities. There is no elevator for students to access the costume shop. Even the regular classrooms have to be adjusted to just accommodate students in wheelchairs.
The classrooms themselves are outdated. Unlike the fancy classrooms in Dillard, most of our classrooms still have chalkboard.
Yes, you heard right – chalkboards.
Let’s not get started about the broken chairs.
It has been impossible to recruit potential students to the college based on out-of-date equipment.
The mass communication department, much like media outlets, is slowly dying — rather committing suicide — with the equipment it has.
Students in broadcast and new media programs cannot continue to work with equipment from the 1970s. MSU-TV2 (Campus Watch) as well as all the broadcast classes including the capstone project class tape their weekly broadcast and coursework on physical tapes that have been passed down from year to year.
Further, Al Gore ‘invented’ the Internet more than 15 years ago, so why is the mass communication building the worst when it comes to Wi-Fi. Fain is the darkest of the black holes on campus. This is shameful in a department that replies on access to new media and a new media environment, the same new media environment the faculty is supposed to be training students in which to work.
Equipment — state-of-the-art equipment and regular upgrades — for not only mass communication and music should be included in the overall cost of the project.
This much-needed upgrade will level the playing field for students facing a fiercely competitive workforce. Rather than solely targeting science or business students, fine arts can finally reach a larger audience of potential students.
It is important all students feel they are a priority. The same can be said for the Counseling Center. The university has focused so much on physical health that mental health has been less than a priority. Both are important to the overall well-being of students.
The Wichitan thinks it is a great step in the right direction in offering a more comfortable setting for students seeking counseling, but music and student media also need to be included in the university’s priorities.