Crews began installing more practice rooms in McAfee Gymnasium to give music majors more time and opportunities to practice since their move from the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

The music department purchased 25 portable practice rooms for student use.

“With the closing of the Doudna Fine Arts Center, there was a need for appropriate practice space on campus for students,” said Roger Stoner, chair of the music department. “These rooms were purchased to provide adequate practice space during relocation.”

The new rooms are state-of-the-art, Stoner said, and include technology called virtual-acoustics. Students can use this technology to adjust the settings in the room to create the atmosphere of different performance settings, such as a concert hall, cathedral, recital hall or recording studio. There are a total of 12 settings, and the rooms are air-conditioned and sound-proof.

The total cost of the rooms is $650,000, which includes the cost of relocating them to the Doudna Fine Arts Center in the summer of 2005, when renovations there are scheduled to be completed.

“Everything about these practice rooms are positive,” Stoner said. “I have talked with numerous students about these units and all are enthusiastic about them.”

Nachel Glynn, a junior history major who works in the music department, has noticed that students have had trouble finding practice space.

“You had to sign up for a practice room … a week in advance to get a room (around concert times),” she said.

Andy Messerli, a junior music education major, said that the new rooms have already been helpful.

“Toward the start of the semester I (had trouble finding space),” he said.

However, Kathy Denton, an office systems specialist responsible for scheduling practice times, said that while the new rooms will be useful, there have not been problems.

“I haven’t had any complaints,” she said.

Some students don’t mind the lack of practice space. Brent Rathgeb, a senior music education major, said he preferred to practice at home.

Six practice rooms were installed on Oct. 2 and 3, and 19 additional practice rooms arrived on Monday. The new rooms will be available for student use on Oct. 28.

Six of the rooms are on the South Gym stage, 11 are in the North Gym, and eight are in the former Registration Office in MacAfee Gymnasium.

Aside from these rooms, there are two regular rooms for students to practice on the second floor of Lawson Hall, three rooms in Coleman Hall on Saturdays and Sundays, and five rooms in the Wesley Church on Fourth Street and Roosevelt Road.

Music Department classes have been relocated to McAfee until 2005 during the construction and renovation of the Doudna Fine Arts Center.