Student walking in the lecture hall. (File Photo/The Daily Campus)
Students who use the University of Connecticut’s lecture halls and classrooms after hours will have more difficulty this semester.
“There have been a few times where my friends will just go watch a movie with some snacks and blankets, and we were always careful, so I am not sure why things would change now,” second-semester biology major Brittany Jimena said.
Classrooms are reserved exclusively for instructors, review sessions, seminars, exams and other academic purposes said UConn spokesperson, Stephanie Reitz
“The classrooms often have valuable technology that can be broken” Reitz said. “The university has to control and monitor the use of the rooms to ensure the items are safe and in good operating order.”
Concern for technology has not stopped students from using the classrooms in the past.
“We’ve had several instances in which items have been broken or classrooms have been left with the furnishings disorganized and trash dropped throughout,” Reitz said.
Everything in the classrooms are programmed to shut down at 11 p.m. and many rooms have a video feed Reitz said.
“We know immediately when something has been turned on” Reitz said, “Some students discover that when our technology staff remotely turns off the television.”
On several occasions, students will turn the televisions back on manually after technology staff have turned them off Reitz said.
“When that happens, we given them a verbal warning, which they can hear over the classroom speakers, to remind them that the space is only used for academic purposes,” Reitz said.
In most cases, students will vacate the room after a verbal warning, with only a few isolated incidents in which students refuse, Reitz said.
“In the few cases when they don’t leave, UConn police have to come to ask them to leave” Reitz said.
Jimena disagrees with the policy the university has for these situations.
“If no harm is being done to the room or its valuables I think we should be able to use the lecture halls to project a movie and enjoy it with friends,” Jimena said. “If it isn’t being used for academic purposes by a professor or a club then I see no harm in doing so.”
Naiela suleiman is a campus correspondent for the Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at naiela.suleiman@uconn.edu.
