DIEGO SANTOS
NE student Maran White said she was confused when trying to find her photography lab in NCAB on the first day of class Aug. 25.
A delay in construction has caused NE Campus instructors to make last-minute schedule changes.
Projects started after spring semester ended in May. However, after three months of these ongoing projects, they are not done.
“I have only been here for two hours, and it’s a mess,” said Mark Penland, a NE photo lab manager. “When I walked in here, I was surprised because I thought it was closer to being done.”
Enrique Gutierrez, a NE photo instructional assistant, said the unfinished projects have created a mess, leaving little to no space in classrooms for the students to work.
“We don’t know what we are going to do about the rooms because they are storing a lot of the stuff from the darkrooms in the classrooms,” Gutierrez said.
The incomplete construction has limited access to the studio, darkroom and labs for photography students in NCAB, leading instructors to alter their assignments.
Gutierrez said the class can manage without the darkroom the first two weeks, however the students are going to need it eventually.
“It is affecting assignments for the beginning of the year since we are not going to have access to the darkroom,” Gutierrez said. “One of the labs isn’t finished so we have to figure out where the students are going to work.”
Jeremiah Wilson, head superintendent of construction in NCAB, specified the original completion day was Aug. 15.
“It should be done by the 25th,” Wilson said. “If it’s not, we are still responsible for it.”
Ting Huang, a NE associate professor of photography, said she reached out to facilities in hopes of finding a different room to use as storage, and she still has not heard back.
“There are printers and enlargers – equipment we felt were fragile – placed in classrooms which was, of course, meant to be a temporary solution,” Huang said.
As a result, instructors are having to place limits on student workspaces and arrange new ones to replace classrooms.
“The students will understand,” Huang said. “We will figure it out, even if [class] is out in the hallway or in the corner of the classroom.”
NE student Myles Carson said he was unaware of the projects on campus and was a little bit confused when walking up for orientation.
“I was a little confused at first,” Carson said. “Maybe if there was a separate message or email notifying specifically about the constructions or direction, it would have been helpful.”
Instructors were not given a detailed timeline about the extension.
Huang said she has asked coordinators to communicate with faculty members to plan if there was another delay.
“We know that it is not going to be done by Monday,” she said.
Huang said the students may or may not be able to do the projects as they have planned for the beginning of the semester.
“The original timeline for these buildings to be done was probably now,” Huang said. “I don’t think we were given enough time or notice.”