John Alex Nunnery and Knollie Edge
Editor and Reporter
After many difficulties over the past year and a half, most classes have returned to a semi-normal schedule with many switching back from online to in-person.
While most of the campus has been getting back into this rhythm, the Communication and Theatre departments at Mississippi University for Women have suddenly found themselves displaced. Their central meeting space, Cromwell Communication Center, is closed for repairs for the rest of the semester.
The problem stemmed from the building’s broken chiller that stopped working back in November of last year. The chiller regulates the heat in the building and makes sure it is cool enough to work in. Without it, the building can reach temperatures well above 90 degrees on a hot day, making it impossible to work in without a certain amount of risk.
“We struggled through the Summer, but as we got closer to the new semester it became clear that we weren’t going to have air conditioning for the Fall, so we made the choice to relocate classes,” said Dr. Barry Smith, chair of the Communication Department at The W. “It adds a layer of difficulty to the logistics of getting things done, we had to actually move a handful of computers from our lab into McDevitt because we have Adobe Creative Suite on our computers which is not on the computers in McDevitt.”
All the classes that are normally held in Cromwell have been moved to different buildings across campus. McDevitt, Fant Library, the education building, and others allowed access to classrooms and study rooms for use of faculty and students while Cromwell is awaiting repairs. Some faculty have become nomads as they mostly work from home. Only in the past week have some found a central place to work from on-campus.
“During the midsummer, the heat and humidity were so bad we had to start moving things out of our offices and take things home because they started to warp,” said Kathy Newman an assistant professor in the Theatre Department at The W. “It wasn’t until two weeks ago that the Art Department was kind enough to find us some spare offices and allow us to stay with them over there.”
For students in the Communication and Theatre, there is an adjustment with having to be in different spaces, but most seem content with just being allowed to have in-person classes.
“I really do miss Cromwell and being in our home space — it’s where we are supposed to be — but classes go pretty much as normal,” said Olivia Sagely, a senior Communication major. “I think the professors are probably more affected than the students because they have to adapt to technology they aren’t used to.”
Cromwell has been allotted the money to be fixed and it is scheduled to have the chiller replaced soon. Latest word is tht it will take 6 months to be fixed from when the replacement was funded in August. Until then, the students and faculty must adapt to these new changes.