Economics building to move into the '90s

Leigh-Anne Brown Arizona Daily Wildcat The majority of the chairs in the Economics building are falling apart and bolted to the floors. This summer, renovations will be done to make the classrooms more comfortable. There will also be a complete technological overhaul, including installation of new audio systems, air conditioning and other necessities.

"It needed it 20 years ago," said Michael Gottfredson, vice president for undergraduate education, who recalled uncomfortable days teaching in the building's classrooms.

"The desks looked like that they came out of 'Little House on the Prairie' and the shades didn't close, so you couldn't show movies, but it didn't matter anyway because the projector was broken," he said.

Joel Valdez, senior vice president for business affairs, remembered taking classes in the building decades ago and returning as an administrator to find the building largely unchanged.

"I was taking classes there in 1951, and it was old then," he said.

The building is still heavily used, however, so renovations must be concentrated in an intensive effort during the three months of summer vacation, Valdez said. Faculty with offices in the building will be relocated to a sorority house bordering Hillenbrand Memorial Stadium, he said.

"Those three months are going to be hectic," Valdez said. "The troops have to go in there like ants. Think of those people working in there with no air-conditioning."

The Economics building renovation is the largest in a series of classroom updating efforts, he said.

The project, initiated in 1993 by a group of administrators led by Provost Paul Sypherd, is a five-year commitment by the university to spend $2 million a year in renovations.

"We opened a discussion on the quality of our instruction space - we have some that look awful," Sypherd said. "And then it evolved that most of our classrooms will not support technology."

Though the state Legislature appropriates variable amounts of building renewal funds to the University of Arizona each year, the amount is typically 10 times less than the need, Sypherd said. The university decided to take its own action in response, he said.

"We wanted to say to students, 'Your learning is important to us and your environment is important to us,'" Sypherd said.

Now in its fourth year, the project has left in its wake a trail of classrooms across campus updated with improved acoustics, technological updates and better handicap access, Valdez said.

"Some of the rooms I've been in are just astonishing," Sypherd said. "The neatest example is Social Sciences 100 - you almost have to see it to believe it."

A committee selects which classrooms to renovate, Valdez said.

"We have all these lists and we wrestle with prioritizing different projects," he said. "We've done a heck of a lot, but there's never enough to meet everyone's needs."

The project typically targets several classrooms in a building at one time to save money, Gottfredson said.

"It's a lot more efficient use of resources to do lots of rooms in one building," he said.

No building improved in the project has seen as many renovations as the Economics building will this summer, Valdez said.

The building will be outfitted with a new heating, venting and cooling system, he said.

"It's in dire need of fixing," he said. "It was installed in 1932."

Installing the new system alongside the renovations is the best arrangement, Gottfredson said.

"There's no point in upgrading a classroom and having students uncomfortable in them," he said. "We don't want to put in new seating and new acoustics and then have it be insufferable because it's too warm."

The building will also be updated to allow teachers to revamp their instruction with the latest technological aids, Gottfredson said.

"Within five years time, a lot of the classrooms will have computerized instruction," he said.

All the renovations, however, are pending approval from the Arizona Board of Regents at its May meeting, Valdez said.

Seeking approval from the board for projects exceeding $1 million is standard procedure, he said.