Michael O’Hare has a nice piece about building on campus. The central point is that capital is so cheap, compared with labor, in our business (even at UC Berkeley apparently!) that if better buildings make us more productive the university should invest more in building than they do (at least, if they will invest in the right kinds of buildings):
Consider an improvement of some sort to a classroom with fifty seats, used for 1200 hours a year – new projector, paint the walls, new chairs, whatever. If it could increase learning by the students by 5%, what fraction of the cost of the room would it be worth spending? The answer is 100%: you should be willing to throw the room away and build a whole new one.
A typical senior faculty office is about 10 x 12 feet…. In that office you can get a desk and a chair, bookshelves all over one wall, a couple of file cabinets, and a chair for visitors. If we’re lucky, there’s a tree outside the window, and the élite of profs get a squirrel in the tree. Throw in a printer and a scanner and you need another small table and it starts to get quite tight.
What would increase productivity in my business? I nominate: another real table that seats four, and a couch. Why a couch? For naps; actually everyone would do more, better work with naps, but profs work long hours; the research on this is done and it’s not debatable. The meeting space is because our work requires a lot of small meetings, often unscheduled, with colleagues and with students alone or in small groups.
Three thoughts based on my own experience:
1. The post has made me rethink my office (which is not 10×12 — maybe 8×10?). It is a mess, which is not going to change [1], but I have managed to squeeze 5 chairs in because the most important thing I do in the office is meet with students. Often one or two students sits on the floor, or stands. But I could make more space by getting rid of the large desk that has been in the room since the building was built nearly 50 years ago, and replacing it with a table half the size. (I use a laptop, not a desktop, and we have wireless printing facilities, so I don’t need really need the printer that currently sits on my desk and hasn’t worked properly for about 3 years). [2]
2. Nevertheless, I don’t think we use office space efficiently. I am in my office maybe 15 hours a week at the most — I work from home a reasonable amount, and although I am on campus just about every weekday most weeks, the campus is reasonably large, and it is often a waste of time to return to my office between meetings and/or classes [3]: most of my meetings with students are by appointment, and we arrange places that are mutually convenient. 1 out of every 3 days I am on campus I never go near my office. I think it would make more sense for us (well, for me) to have even smaller offices, just large enough for 1-to-1 private meetings, and more comfortable spaces for casual meetings.
3. Not all classroom improvements are good. Here’s an example. The notorious Humanities building has a two floors of classrooms most of which have bare walls, old chairs, all of them susceptible to mold and leaks, and no AV support at all (well, apart from electrical outlets). A few classrooms have been refurbished — with comfy seats, fancy AV, and controllable lighting. BUT: whereas in the untouched classrooms you can move chairs, and students, around, in the refurbished rooms the seats are fixed to the floor, all facing directly forward. I can see why that works for large lectures but for rooms with 40 seats, which may contain only 20 students, it’s a disaster. The unrefurbished classrooms are better for learning.
[1] Really, really a mess. I just emphasize this so that the non-trivial number of readers who have been in my office will not think I am delusional. Still, I can recommend Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives
[2] I don’t nap, though I agree people should nap more. Still, for myself I’m thinking within the constraint of knowing that the physical dimensions of my office will not expand or change in anyway before I retire or die.
[3] Remember, in winter every movement between buildings includes an added 5-7 minutes for putting on and removing several additional layers, and making sure you haven’t forgotten them.
{ 14 comments }
Scott P. 10.10.16 at 3:35 pm
Where do you meet your students, if not in your office?
SamChevre 10.10.16 at 3:39 pm
I work in the corporate world, not in academia–but one thing that several places I’ve worked have done is to separate offices from meeting spaces. An abundance of 8’x10′ spaces that aren’t offices, but meeting rooms with a table and four chairs, is tremendously useful. (And uses space more efficiently, since most people aren’t in meetings 40 hours a week.)
Harry 10.10.16 at 3:42 pm
All sorts of places — empty classrooms, lobbies (our Admin building has a lovely one), the Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery, either of the union buildings, a fantastic lounge that anyone can use in the University Club. Obviously (I hope) I only do this for meetings where I know the content of the meeting, and know it is ok to have it in public space — if I don’t, then I assume that the meeting should be private. Also, office hours are always in my office (hence the 5 chairs…). Students are often glad to do this, esp if they are in STEM majors (and thus tend to live their lives on the west side of campus) and esp if it is winter.
Ben 10.10.16 at 4:05 pm
Leaving aside interactions with faculty: what are the institutional dynamics among the administration for spending capital on projects like this? In general, are there incentives for admin to spend not-insignificant capital to improve working conditions for professors?
Incentives against are in the short-term and concrete:
– no immediate ROI in the flashy MBA sense (like better gyms, dining halls, etc) that would attract students
– there’s no obvious admin institutional actor who gets to take credit for whatever improvements result so no-one has direct incentive to push for improvements, whereas every dollar spent on improving working facilities is a dollar not spent somewhere else where incentives for admins are clearer
– boosters / extra-institutional actors who champion specific causes not likely to give a shit about professor working conditions, especially for the amount of capital likely required
Whereas the only admin incentive I can see pushing for spending capital is in a more abstract “the better educational experience a student gets, the more likely they are to donate in the future / the better word-of-mouth would be”. Which is amorphous, in a long time frame, and also applies to a wide scope of other improvements.
What other admin institutional dynamics are at play?
marcel proust 10.10.16 at 5:46 pm
I’m all for naps, but couches? Hm…
Perhaps not for philosophy departments faculty. Nor astronomers for that matter…
hix 10.10.16 at 9:19 pm
A 5% increase based on room quality sounds rather outlandish, no matter how great the improvement. The usual major problems with rooms in my experience are technical ones which require maintenance labour input. ( Ill exclude the typical lack of sufficient sitting space issue at German Universities which I tend to think is mainly based on intention or incompetent planing, not lack of space)
Alan White 10.11.16 at 1:40 am
And of course Harry you know this:
http://archive.jsonline.com/news/education/uw-system-putting-off-repairs-renovation–but-at-what-cost-b99750691z1-385326701.html\
On my own campus the county (which owns the buildings–the state staffs and equips the campus as part of UW System) is investing in lab/library/art renovations at a time when we are in a very sharp enrollment downturn. That’s a huge boost in morale for us when otherwise our very existence as a campus might have been threatened by indifference and complacency. These things do matter.
By the way, how can newer classroom renovations justify fixed seating? For one thing it paralyzes situations of learning–for another it has to make assumptions about how people may comfortably sit, ignoring variability of body types. Seems silly.
One thing I’ve noticed in the last few years is a trend for students to fail to take advantage of office hours. Some recent semesters I’ve had maybe a half-dozen students see me in the office during an entire semester! And that despite repeated appeals to make use of office time. Though, to be realistic about that, the time that students talk to me after class and in the halls has definitely increased as well. Maybe the formality of scheduling during office hours is off-putting.
magari 10.11.16 at 2:17 am
How the f*** is it not “best practice” by now to install chairs with wheels.
Chris Bertram 10.11.16 at 7:09 am
3., absolutely, disaster. Classrooms with fixed seats all facing forwards, designed by people with no experience of teaching. Even when the seats can be moved, I often use 5 minutes of classroom time reorganizing the table and chairs into a horseshoe or circle.
Dallas Trinkle 10.11.16 at 7:15 am
The best technological innovation I’ve seen for teaching is roller chair desks that have a platform below for holding backpacks. It makes reconfiguring space for teams and discussions super fast, and gets those backpacks off the floor to clear walking paths for instructors / TAs.
kidneystones 10.11.16 at 7:24 am
Hi Harry, I like your stuff so much, but I’m surprised you feel your students need to sit at all. Have you rationalized this behavior? Have you questioned what can be gained by putting students into groups leaning, sitting, or standing in different parts of the classroom? Our term just started at one national university and I changed rooms, new to old, small to large.
There’s nothing at all wrong with compelling students to speak to each other over a distance of a meter, or two. I also enjoy placing three groups of students at the boards, and asking students to take turns explaining a key point to other members of the group.
No AV, or access to wi-fi is a pain. Motion and a cool room keeps students awake.
merian 10.11.16 at 8:27 am
We got a new building last year. A lot of new life sciences lab space (the institution started a veterinarian medicine program, which pushed a lot of the arctic biology off to the new building), a nice little auditorium (just right), classrooms and seminar rooms. I haven’t done any teaching there, but am participating in a science teaching / outreach seminar and similar stuff in the small rooms. Though the experience is not without minor kinks (the chairs are complicated to adjust and the fabric stains…) I much enjoy the careful choices that have been made.
The seminar rooms are arranged around oblong central tables (with power and network sockets) that seat about 12 comfortably — which works in our case. There are whiteboards at one end and two more walls can be written on. One is glass. Opposite is a window wall that looks out over the taiga (very calming). Teleconferencing, including complicated arrangements (having a remote participant projected on half the whiteboard while transmitting both the class AND the otherwhiteboard out to them) are possible.
The classrooms are large, about square, with individual chairs on coasters, with built-in writing surfaces. That can be odd if the instructor just lectures, and for public talks where everyone just stares forward it can be a bit of a mess to navigate (I’d move those into the lecture hall, frankly, if possible at all…). However, I’ve seen it used very skillfully, too, when students work together in groups, then move around and exchange. Some larger central tables would help sometimes, but I think they are in principle available — I just haven’t seen them used.
I don’t know if the lab spaces are an improvement over regular labs. I teach in the main natural science building, in a geosciences lab, where student sit facing each other across large elongated masonry lab tables. They are great for the actual work, but to get everyone’s attention without anyone getting a kink in their necks it’s sub-optimal.
Gabriel Pomerand 10.11.16 at 10:27 pm
My office, in which I spend very little time, contains: one window (on an internal atrium), two doors, two bookcases, one small table, and–most importantly–three desks, three office chairs and three pedestal units, three academics for the use of. The best way to describe the dimensions of this three-person space is to say that until relatively recently it contained two desks (etc)–and we didn’t spend our days in wonderment or lamentation at how much free space was going to waste. Office hours are interesting; the other week I found myself half-listening to a half-whispered consultation with a student for a good quarter of an hour while I was trying to get some work done. I wouldn’t have minded, but it was actually my office hour–that’s the main reason I was in the office at all. If somebody does turn up to see me I generally go and sit with them on the bench seating in the corridor outside. The only people who get an office to themselves are full Professors; I guess it’s something to aspire to. (Although, having worked–briefly and a long time ago–at an institution where everybody from Lecturer up got their own space with a door they could close, mainly I aspire to working my way back there.)
And yes, I’m using a pseudonym.
js. 10.12.16 at 3:33 am
This sounds amazingly misconceived. Honestly, why would you do this for a 40 person classroom? I’ve held classes in similar sized classrooms where the actual class size was *much* smaller than 40—like, less than half on occasion. It’s so much better to be able to move chairs around.
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