Recent campus expansion appears to be a mixed blessing for professors and students alike.
With growing enrollment and program expansion over the past few years, departments have been feeling the squeeze. Relief is in sight with the addition of the old Atchison Hospital facility ,but at what cost to students and faculty?
At first glance, the additional space would seem like a solution to the problem of overcrowding, especially in classes where some students have no place but the floor to sit or who have to bring in extra chairs from outside the classroom.
Some faculty members who have had offices the size of closets will be working in relative luxury with their new office space. And there will be a little more elbow room for the departments left on the main campus. One program, engineering, will have room to expand as others move to new digs.
On closer examination, potential problems become obvious. Some may be minor adjustments but others have the possibility of becoming long-term hassles.
Faculty and administration have been meeting to find ways to mitigate the difficulties associated with the move, but members of the faculty sill have concerns.
“The most anticipated problem is that the time in between classes may not be enough for a student to walk from Cray to another classroom on campus,” mass communications chair Kevin Page said. “A couple of other faculty members and myself walked from St. Benedict Hall to Cray and it took about 8 minutes.”
Add in walking down a hallway and up or down stairs, a pit stop in the rest room, a drink of water, or a few words with a professor and, according to Page, “It’s doubtful if students will be in their seat ready to go on time.
“The concern obviously is that this will cause people to arrive late for class which is not only disruptive, but doesn’t support the academic mission of the college,” Page said.
Faculty discussed extending the time between classes to 15 minutes but decided not to make the change due to several issues.
For example, a Monday schedule that would include classes at 8 a.m., 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. would, with the extended time between classes, become 8 a.m., 9:05 a.m. and 10:10 a.m.
Some students commented that they would find such a schedule confusing. However, the logistics of getting to class on time are problematic.
“Not increasing the time between classes is a huge concern,” student Bryna Bordovsky said. “Maybe students could walk it in eight minutes, but those of us not in the best physical shape already have to walk a pretty fast pace to get to classes from say, Amino or Legacy, to St. Ben’s in 10 minutes.
“I know myself, there is no way I could make it on time. Also, consider the type of weather we have here. Ice, snow, sleet. That presents all sorts of hazards when walking around, and if you are trying to book it to class on time and climb up and down stairs, that is going to be really difficult in those sorts of conditions, not to mention the danger of trying to rush across a street.”
A less obvious problem is the impact of the move on the traditional sense of Benedictine community. Benedictine College’s sense of community is part of the college’s identity and is evident within the faculty and the student body.
The exodus of three departments from the main campus raises the question of whether the relocating departments will experience isolation.
Student Bridgette Mantia has ambivalent feelings about the relocation.
“I guess what I don’t like about it is that it is away from the other academic buildings, but, then again, it might become its own fun cluster,” Mantia said.
She she also would have appreciated having the students consulted about the move because students are affected as much as the professors are.
Feelings of ambivalence prevail among the faculty as well. While the mass communications department will reap the benefits of more space, it does remove the department from the more populated part of campus.
“There will be enough faculty there that it won’t be as if we or any other department is in total isolation,” Page said. “Also, I run into people in the mail room in St. Benedict’s Hall that I otherwise wouldn’t see. Since our mail will be delivered to either Cray or Ramsay, we won’t need to visit the campus as much.
“I think I will miss the socialization that we now have. For example, I run into faculty members from the other departments in the morning when I come to work and we walk into the building from the parking lot.”
Initially opposed to the move, the psychology department is prepared to focus on the benefits of the move while trying to make accommodations to lessen the negative aspects.
The benefits for this department are having lab space for research purposes and having faculty offices closer together than they’ve had in Westerman Hall.
“Our primary concern is that Cray Manor is too far from the rest of the academic program, which might be detrimental to students enrolled in our classes,” said psychology department chair Amy Posey.
“For example, faculty and students often use the time just before and after class to ask and answer questions, make appointments, and the like. Because many of our students will be walking to Cray directly from a class immediately prior or to a class immediately after in St. Benedict’s or Westerman, there will not be time for those conversations.”
The isolation factor is another concern for Posey.
“Students may not be as inclined to stop by our offices, for example,” she said. “Also, although we will certainly enjoy the company of our colleagues in sociology and criminal justice and journalism and mass communications in Cray, and in nursing next door in Ramsay, it will not match the rich interdisciplinary contact that we now enjoy up on the hill. We will have to find ways to maintain those contacts after we move.”
Sociology and criminology chair Kevin Bryant will enjoy the space and new furniture that his department will gain, but is wary of the potential problems associated with the move.
“How will this change relationships?” Bryant asked. “There used to be a pull to the hill. This changed with the addition of the Tower classroom and the Legacy classroom. This is going to be more dramatic.
“If we’re truly going to make this part of the campus community, there needs to be some mixing. We've invited other departments to use our classroom space to solve this ecological problem.”
Another concern is convenience.
“If one of my advisees stops by my office, and then I or that student needs to go to the registrar’s office, right now it’s not a problem,” said Page. “When we’re in Cray it will definitely be much harder to just go over to the registrar’s office than it is now.”
Ambivalent feelings aside, faculty and students remain open to the potential benefits of the addition of Cray Manor to the campus. Speaking for the psychology department, Dr. Posey stated that they are committed to focusing on the benefits and to embracing the potential opportunities the new space has to offer.
“We will remain vigilant about protecting our relationships with our students, and will certainly advocate for a schedule change if indeed those relationships are adversely affected by the move,” Posey said.
