Over 150 classrooms and labs opened their doors to visitors for the first UA Open House Week beginning Monday, though only about 70 people had shown up as of yesterday afternoon.

The Faculty Development Team, made up of about 30 faculty members, is putting on the event, which concludes this afternoon. The point of the open house is to let visitors see the campus from the students' point of view by joining classes, touring laboratories and trying out some of the UA's computer technology, according to scheduling information on the event.

"We realized there hasn't been an opportunity for members of the community to visit on-going classes and we wanted to open up academic life," Dinham said.

Although tours were available at the Ina Gittings Computing Center, no one showed up, said dance graduate Stacey Gartrell, the computer lab monitor.

In fact, Gartrell said she did not even know the lab was a part of the open house until Wednesday.

Tours of KUAT-TV Channel 6 studios were also available, but only one person showed up, said Pamela Dickens, broadcast promotion and advertising specialist at the station.

Sarah Dinham, professor of educational psychology and a member of the development team, said the idea of creating an open house was made six weeks ago at one of the committee's meetings.

"This is kind of a test run, to see what works best, what planning is needed next time," said Dinham, who volunteered her time at the Open House Week information booth on the Mall.

She said committee members hope to run the next open house in conjunction with Family Weekend which is held at the end of October each year. Last year about 8,000 students and their family members took part in the weekend's activities.

Renee Albert, a campus-area resident whose son graduated from the University of Arizona, said she took part in Open House Week because she is considering taking some classes in the fall.

Albert, a native of Germany, went to a demonstration of the World Wide Web at the Main Library, using the opportunity to visit computer sites from and about her homeland.

"It's exciting because you can punch in your country and read in your own language," Albert said.

Although open house visitors were difficult to find, Dinham said she has seen parents, local residents and even a class of sixth-graders on campus this week for the events.

To advertise, open house organizers posted information about the week's events on the university's World Wide Web page, said Mary Barleycorn, administrative assistant in the psychology department and Faculty Development Team member.

Open House Week will end with a closing reception at 3 p.m. on the Mall. Library cards, gift certificates and other prizes will be given away. Tickets are available at the information tent.