Art professor Denise Rehm-Mott is worried that she is not giving her students the kind of education they deserve.

Her classroom, located in the former Booth West building, is full of equipment that sits unused and disorganized. Some of her equipment has not even been delivered. There is no running water, no ventilation, and no doors throughout the entire building.

While most students are sailing into their second week of classes at Eastern, many art students are still waiting for the former Booth West building to reach completion before they can use art equipment.

Last Monday, the bathrooms in the building were only piles of dirt. The exhaust ventilation system had not been installed yet and wires hung from the ceiling.

Over the last week, contractors have laid a cement floor on the mounds of dirt in the bathroom, but sinks and equipment still sit unattached on the concrete floor. Faculty and students use a bathroom on the second floor of the building, but Katherine Bartel, an associate art professor, said that bathroom is unclean.

“I try to avoid using it,” she said. “It’s gross.”

Effects on Classes

Classrooms in Booth West were expected to be ready for art classes yesterday after delays forced students to temporarily relocate for classes last week, but the building is not a far cry from its incomplete condition during that time. Some faculty have been holding class, but accomplishing little.

Rehm-Mott teaches an advanced print shop course. She said she allowed more people into her class than usual this semester because she is going on sabbatical and will not be replaced next semester.

She wanted to offer as many students as possible the opportunity to take her class, but she can’t even begin her regular class schedule until the building has running water and proper ventilation.

“I’m really concerned for the advanced people,” she said. “They have a certain idea of what they want to do. I’m very upset because these people can’t do what they want to do.”

Rehm-Mott said officials told her the building would have running water and ventilation by the end of the week.

How long will it last?

However, Rex Hilligoss, campus architect at facilities planning and management, said he did not have a date when construction would be completely finalized, but he said it may take “a little while.” He said a final date was hard to say because Eastern was not in charge of the construction. Contractors for the renovations were hired by the building’s landlords.

“We knew it wouldn’t be totally complete when school started,” he said. “We have been trying to tie up loose ends.”

The sheer amount of equipment need to be moved, coupled with the fact that contractors were working on a second project unrelated to Eastern, may have contributed to the delay Hilligoss said. Contractors were hired by the landlords of the former Booth West.

Rehm-Mott said she believed administration officials underestimated the amount of equipment and work it would take to move the art department.

“I kind of figured this would happen,” she said. “There is a lot of equipment that needs to be moved. These are not lecture halls.”

However, Blair Lord, vice president of student affairs, said the amount of equipment did not surprise the administration. The problem is that movers have no place to move equipment when rooms are not finished.

“This has been a challenge for us,” Lord said. “I don’t think anyone at the university is satisfied at the moment. It is frustrating. There is not doubt about that.”