By Bonnie Meibers, Senior Staff Writer
Even when students are in class, they can hear the knocking of a hammer outside, the rattling of wheels on a mop bucket or the clamor of a broom sweeping debris into a pan in the hallway and atrium of the building. This is the unfinished Shideler Hall.
ATH 135: Film as Ethnography had to move classrooms because Shideler 152 was not appropriate for the class. The anthropology course is cross-listed with film studies, so much of the course involves watching films.
The 200-seat auditorium would be an ideal location for such a class, but the lights do not turn off from inside the room. They can only be turned off at the breaker, which isn't located in the auditorium. And the classroom lights needed to be dimmer in order to watch the films.
The auditorium also has floor-to-ceiling windows. According to Becky Heftel, administrative assistant for the Department of Anthropology, these large windows were not equipped with blinds the week before classes started.
"The lecture hall is very nice, but not made for showing films," said Stanley Toops, associate professor of geography and global and intercultural studies.
There are already broken seats in the auditorium. There is no carpeting or padding on the floors - the seats are bolted to the cement.
"I don't know how they can be having class in there with all of the issues," Heftel said. "There shouldn't be classes in there, in my opinion."
In the geography graduate students' office, located in the basement of the building, the lights weren't working for the first two weeks and the unfinished ceiling leaked cement. And, in the graduate student break room across the hall, construction workers have set up shop, said Sean Kelly, a graduate student of geology.
"It has caused problems for some people," Kelly said.
Erica Young, an employee for Miami University Physical Facilities, said it's inconvenient for the physical facilities staff to have to clean up after students and also the mess from the building's ongoing construction.
"Some days are worse than others," she said.
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Rick Newcomer works for Gilbane building company, which is leading the construction in Shideler and has partnered with Miami on several other projects. He has worked on the building from the beginning and believes delaying the opening of Shideler wouldn't have made a difference.
"We would still be finding last-minute things we need to do," Newcomer said.
The Limper Geology Museum inside Shideler is still under construction as well, said Kendall Hauer, director of the museum. He is excited to for the new space.
"The old museum was tucked away in the basement," Hauer said. "Now it's a show-piece."
Hauer hopes to have most of the museum finished by fall 2017, including a half dozen of the major exhibits.
One of those exhibits will be an omniglobe. The omniglobe can display plate tectonics, El Niño winds, Pangea breaking up and population concentration, among other things. The globe should be installed and active by the end of the summer.
Hauer hopes to use the omniglobe in conjunction with course work in geosciences, history and art.
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