Studio art classes temporarily moved to the former Booth West location during the renovation of the Doudna Fine Arts Center are not completely finished, although classes begin today.

Wires hung from the ceiling and unfinished floors exposed the dirt below as studio art faculty toured their new classrooms and offices Sunday.

Because the classrooms are not fully completed, students will go to class in the new location on Lincoln Avenue on Monday and Tuesday to receive their syllabus and to make arrangements for the rest of the week, said Glenn Hild, associate dean of the college of arts and humanities.

The art department has arranged to to hold classes on Wednesday and Thursday in the Martin Luther King University Union, Hild said. No studio art classes meet on Friday.

Classrooms are expected to be ready to facilitate the art classes by Sept. 3.

As well as having unfinished wiring and floors in some of the classrooms, the new classrooms have yet to receive doors and some construction equipment still remains in the rooms.

The local exhaust ventilation also has not been installed in the classrooms, Hild said.

Bathrooms in the building are still just piles of dirt, but students are able to use the restrooms at the neighboring Osco Drug, said Steve Shrake, director of the physical plant.

Shrake said the university knew the contractors would cut it close to having the classrooms finished by the time school began.

The contractors chosen to make the classrooms were hired by the landlords of the building, so the university does not have a relationship with them, Shrake said.

Classes being held in the new location are ceramics, sculpture, print-making, 2-D design, 3-D design, graphic design and weaving, Hild said.

The classrooms and offices will be in the new location until the Doudna Fine Arts building is completed in fall 2005, said Jim Johnson, dean of the college of arts and humanities.

Johnson said he is pleased with the progress of the classrooms in the new location and thinks the art faculty will enjoy their new, spacious classrooms.

Members of the art faculty refused comment to The Daily Eastern News.