Science building construction hampers students, professors

Freshmen might no longer be the only students who find it difficult to get around campus this semester. Due to construction on Simon Hall, an 80,000 square-foot science building that will house interdisciplinary science research and various labs, many students are having to take various detours throughout campus.\nA safety fence circles the entire construction site between Myers Hall and the Chemistry Building, which makes it hard for students to cut through campus. \nSophomore Rachael Franklin and two of her friends were 15 minutes late to their first class last Tuesday because they were lost trying to get around the construction.\n"A few of my friends and I were cutting behind Ballantine Hall and little did we know it would take up 20 minutes to get to class in Jordan Hall because we had to turn around and go to opposite way," she said.\nSophomore Alyson Collings said she doesn't think it's a burden to walk around the construction.\n"But I understand how some people could get lost or confused when they're trying to find their way around," Collings said. \nThe construction is not only a nuisance for students as they're walking to and from class, but it also disrupts students and professors during classes in Ballantine Hall, Jordan Hall, the Chemistry Building and Myers Hall. \nSenior Shira Rothberg, who has a biology class in Jordan Hall, finds it challenging to hear her professor during lecture. \n"The construction is just a big distraction in general because there is constant noise through the lecture, and everyone really has to listen extremely hard to hear anything the professor is saying," Rothberg said. \nRothberg's professor, Amy Berndtson, has brought the construction issues to her student's attention by asking them to work together and cooperate so everyone can hear over the noise. \n"The construction process is something we need to bare with, but I have asked my students to try to keep the chit-chatting to a minimum because it is hard to hear if anyone at all is talking," she said. \nRothberg is also bothered by the construction noise at her night class in Myers Hall.\n"I know that the construction is necessary and I guess the more they work on it, the faster it will get done. But I just wish that I didn't have to listen to the banging in my night class too," Rothberg said. "You can just tell it bothers everyone in the class because it's so difficult to hear."\nBerndtson said although the construction is a nuisance at times, the noise is necessary for the completion of the building.\n"The science building is very important to this campus and it is important that we just try to work around it," she said.\nThe construction began on June 3 and is expected to be completed in 2007.\n-- Contact staff writer Nellie Summerfield at mailto:nsummerf@indiana.edu.