Professors speak out about ‘learning environments’

Dirty floors. Broken furniture. Poor lighting. Rooms that are too hot or cold.

These are the complaints many professors have about the classrooms at VCU, according to a survey conducted by the faculty senate. Four out of 10 respondents said they were dissatisfied with their teaching environment.

Respondents said one of the biggest problems is inadequate space. Sometimes students are forced to sit in chairs without desks or even stand against the wall.

“Right now, rooms begin the semester with more students than they comfortably fit and it takes until the drop date, which is very late, before the rooms stop feeling claustrophobic,” a professor wrote in the survey, which was conducted last spring and discussed at the November meeting of the faculty senate.

Many of the 139 respondents wrote anonymous comments criticizing the physical environment at VCU.

“I find the Franklin Street Gym an unbearable place to teach. It stinks, it’s visibly filthy, and the furniture is so ancient that my 120-pound body broke a chair. My students were disgusted with it,” one professor said.

“My pregnant student got physically ill from the smell. If it’s at all possible, we should not teach in that building,” the professor said. “I realize it’s old and we’re desperate for space, but it is not a good learning environment whatsoever.”

The School of Business building received the most problem reports.

“I teach mainly on the first two floors of the business building, which has several drawbacks: inadequately soundproofed rooms, making lectures difficult and in-class writing almost impossible, inadequate or outdated technology in many rooms filthy whiteboards which cannot be properly erased, and thus cannot be written on legibly, and occasional swarms of gnats,” one instructor said in the survey.

“These problems have hampered my ability to teach effectively.”

The survey was conducted by the faculty senate’s Academic Support Services Committee, chaired by Dan Ream, head of education and outreach services for VCU Libraries.

“While a great classroom cannot alone make a professor great, a bad classroom can really hurt even the best of teachers,” Ream said.

Ultimately, environmental problems affect students’ ability to learn.

“I remember taking a class in the business building my sophomore year,” said senior Chase Farmer. “It was so hot that I could barely concentrate. It was almost unbearable.”

Another senior, Heather Warren, also complained about the business building:

“The floors never seem to be clean, and they sometimes carry a horrible odor,” she said. “The computer lab needs cleaning – the keyboards are filthy, and the trashcans are always overflowing. Sometimes it’s even as if the whole building has an unpleasant smell.”

Professors often cited classroom cleanliness as a problem. In recent years, VCU has hired an outside company to handle custodial duties. Some think that may have contributed to the problem.

“Cleanliness of classrooms and buildings has certainly been identified as a widespread problem in our survey. It’s hard to lay blame on outsourcing alone, though that may be part of why,” Ream said. “For whatever reason, more attention to classroom cleanliness seems needed.”

In the survey, respondents reported 88 complaints about climate control, 86 about furniture and seating, 85 about cleanliness and 57 about lighting.

Several instructors also said computers and audio-visual equipment are non-existent or don’t work properly. Often, one respondent wrote, “I simply forego the integration of the technology to the detriment of learning. We need to have computer access in every room with overhead projection.”

Technological difficulties are frustrating for students, too.

“It’s annoying when I come to class and have to wait for the professor to mess around with the different technologies,” said senior Ricky Davis. “If half the class time is taken up by messing around with computers, why should I bother to come?”

The survey results weren’t all bleak. About 47 percent of the respondents said they were satisfied with their classrooms – especially in newer buildings such as the Eugene P. and Lois E. Trani Center for Life Sciences.

“We are lucky in the School of Engineering!” one professor said.

But another described most buildings on the Monroe Park Campus as “wretched.”

“They distract significantly from the learning environment,” the professor said. “They are dirty, poorly designed, poorly lit, and inevitably too hot or too cold. . It is, frankly, embarrassing (not to mention demoralizing) and it’s a profound disservice to our students.”

Many faculty members hope the survey will prompt VCU to address such problems.

In the 2002 survey, the Hibbs Building was the target of many complaints. Ream believes that survey helped persuade VCU to renovate Hibbs.

“Our 2006 survey seems to point to the business building as our greatest area in need of improvement,” Ream said.

VCU is building a new School of Business building at the southeast corner of Belvidere and Main streets. The existing business building will stay in use to accommodate a student enrollment that just exceeded 30,000.

“Students deserve the best learning environment we can provide,” Ream said. “We hope the survey leads to much needed improvements.”