After a brief visitation last year, the Arizona Board of Higher Education decided the University of Arizona needed a $10 million face lift.

The board rated most of the campus's classrooms inadequate teaching facilities. The money will be used to renovate rooms inside the Physics and Atmospheric Sciences, Mines (Harshbarger), Architecture, Art, Family and Consumer Studies, Old Chemistry, Center for English as a Second Language, and Marley buildings.

Construction should begin this summer, while renovation inside three of Harvill's classrooms began over winter break. The funds were provided by the state in a Building Renewal Fund, said Mike Gottfredson, vice provost for Undergraduate Programs.

"After our evaluation, every building on campus was surveyed and ranked in the urgency that they needed to be renovated," Gottfredson said. "The list of buildings was then divided into five segments according to the dates that they would be renovated.

"It will be a rolling program and we'll spend about $10 million over the five years," he said.

The buildings selected are also the most commonly used facilities on campus. In addition to the renovation, about 93 new Panasonic televisions with VCRs have already been installed in many classrooms.

"Facilities Management has these SWAT teams where a small amount of people who are the top at their job can come in and fix things quickly," said Mike Urena, media technician supervisor. "Rooms 102, 103 and 134 in Harvill will be worked on first, in four phases, until all the problems are fixed.

"In the meantime, classes normally held there will be moved to other places to compensate for space," Urena said. "Then they'll move on, doing one building at a time until the Integrated Instructional Facility building is done. Then they'll probably move all the classes there and Facilities Management will probably close down the buildings that still need work and finish the job all at once."

A committee, comprised of faculty, facilities management, and the Vice Provost of Undergraduate Programs' office, has been working for a year to bring the university's classes out of the dark ages. The project is titled "Instructional Facilities Improvements" and should be completed by the year 2000.

For inspiration, the committee has been meeting in one of the campus' worst classrooms, inside the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Building.

"You could make a museum out of some of the classrooms on this campus," Gottfredson said. "The lighting in the room we meet in is dark, some chairs are missing seats or have cracked ones, and the ceiling tile is peeling away. Learning in that classroom is unimaginable. When we meet there we look around and say, 'This is the past. Then we ask ourselves, 'What is going to be the future?'"

The type of renovation depends on what the committee decides needs to be done, said Terri Riffe, a committee member and director of the University Teaching Center. Facilities Management also is planning to hold seminars where students can give their input on what they would like to see in the classroom.

Examples of chairs, chalkboards, and overhead projectors they have to choose from will be provided at the seminars. Facilities Management will take the information and work with Riffe in deciding what the faculty and students want to see in a particular room and what works well with the budget, Riffe said.

"Historically, classrooms have not been thought of as much," she said. "With this big of a project, we are trying to get as much input in as possible. This is something that the university absolutely needs to do. We need to move out of the 19th century and get into the 20th century, at least."

Students who have experienced the horror of trying to copy important notes from a dim overhead projector or tried to pay attention to a lecture in cramped, hard seats are pleased that something is going to be done.

"Students don't need couches and pillows in order to learn, but we do need an environment that is conducive to learning," said Christine Thompson, political science senior. "I mean, a seat that you could actually sit in would work."