1995_09 The Daily Collegian September 1995

              THE DAILY
COLLEGIAN
Wednesday, September 6,1995
O
PINION
Managing/Opinion Editor: Celeste Cox
Telephone: (209) 278-5732
Jeff Smith
Words of wisdom
Wherefore art thou,
usable computer lab
You have just hiked miles across campus to reach the only 24-
hour lab on campus, reaching the McKee Fisk building winded and
tired. As you walk through the automatic sliding doors of the build¬
ing, sighing with relief at the thought of being able to sit down and
relax behind the comforting and soothing glow of a computer moni¬
tor, you stop in mid-stride at the sight of one 8** x 11" sign.
TeU me it ain't so
Your eyes are transfixed in rapt attention as you read: As of the
Fall 1995 semester, this lab will be indefinitely closed for renova¬
tion. The following labs are open for your use, please check outside
these labs for availability.
You finish reading the sign in disbelief, so you try the door handle
in the hope the sign is wrong, only to find it locked.
"How can this be?" you ask of no one in particular, only to hear
silence in return and a cruel sign seeming to smile with smug satis¬
faction.
A lab was eventually found, but only after going to nearly every
lab on campus.
Map to the labs.- $10
ED 174, the only Mac lab on campus which never seemed to be
open unless it had a class in it, was locked tighter than Ft. Knox all
of last week.
Then there is PB 133. which is to be the new 24-hour lab. This is
a nice lab in that it has a wide variety of up-to-date software, in¬
cluding WordPerfect 6 and Mosaic. However, this lab is usually
full of business students working on homework and projects for
classes, leaving little time available to other students.
Also in the business building is PB 135, another lab very much
like PB 133, just that it is not open 24 hours.
My personal favorite, SS 202 which also has a great deal of up-
to-date software, but is not open 24 hours. These last three labs I
have mentioned have IBM machines only - no Macs - and this can
be a great problem for many students'.
Macs, anyone?
Imagine needing a Mac for a class and the only lab you can find
is ED 174, but as you go to it, you find it locked. What do you do?
You go home and come back at a different time, hoping it's open.
\   , Nope, its rocked. Argh!
What to do? Flunk? Hope and pray you have a friend that has a
Mac you can use or try to slip in while there is a class, blend in with
the class, and work away. Not the most pleasant of ideas, but it may
be the only one you have.
An important issue for students who need a computer for a class
is accessibility. The only answer to that issue is to buy a personal
Corrections
The Daily Collegian is responsible for correcting any errors that
are published. If factual errors or misspelled names appear in the
paper, please let us know. We will try to make corrections as
promptly as possible.
- In yesterday's issue, page 1, the correct information regarding
the JobsLine system should have read, "Now in its second full year,
the service [JobsLine] handles 200 to 300 student calls a day."
- In the Aug. 31 issue, the following clarification should have
been added to the page 1 ASI story: "The first ad hoc election com¬
mittee appointees also included Brandy Revis, while Jose Peraza
withdrew his appointment at the May 18 ASI meeting."
- In the Aug. 30 issue, members of the band Rugburns were
misidentified. The photo caption on page 1 should have read, "Steve
Polts (lead vocal) is accompanied by Gregory Page (bass) and Jeff
Affedt (drums) in the kilt for a USU Productions noon-time cel¬
ebration of the second day of school in "The Pit."
Submit corrections to:
The Daily Collegian, Keats Campus Building
Mail stop 42
email: collegian @lennon
Like snowflakes, no two
campus buildings are alike
By Reg Wagner
Staff Writer
As a middle-of-the-road public
university nestled in decaying sub¬
urbia, California State University,
Fresno, has rarely been prodded to
bring cutting-edge architectural de¬
sign to its campus. But with every
new multi-million dollar project,
CSUF manages to take aesthetic
mediocrity and bad design to star¬
tling new heights.
Blending in? Never!
When CSUF administrators de¬
cide to construct a new multi-mil¬
lion dollar building, their methods
of planning and design are unique.
Much of the civilized world ob¬
serves the future building's sur¬
roundings, analyzes how it will be
used, and styles it to complement
neighboring buildings, but the
CSUF method of building design
seems almost gleefully obliviousjo
these vital factors.
Traditionally, the construction of
any new CSUF campus structure
becomes mired in controversy and
compromise, with every semi-in¬
volved party demanding endless
architectural alterations.
The end result is that the final
product is a hodgepodge of mis¬
guided input that has been redrawn
and modified to within an inch of
its life.
Big offices and little rooms
Somewhere along the way, the
cries for CEO-size corner offices
with panoramic views drown out
the daily groans of the students for
whom the building was supposedly
intended.
- While students attend classes in
cramped gymnasium rooms and de¬
caying 1950s-era hovels, faculty
dwell in the relative luxury of four
- and five -story office towers that
would not be out of place in a busi¬
ness district, were they not so dread¬
fully unpleasant to the eye.
A classic case in point is the
Leon Peters Business Building,
consistently and mistakenly re¬
ferred to as "Peters Building" by
certain CSUF luminaries.
Leon who?
Leon Peters' namesake is a mas¬
sive gray monolith with schizo¬
phrenic tendencies: one half fancies
itself a five-story office tower, but
bears a closer resemblance to either
a house of cards or a Holiday Inn.
The other half looks like a stack of
shoeboxes that somehow sprouted
a large white tent.
Aesthetic considerations aside,
the Peters Building is forbidden to
anyone except business students,
who are apparently used to the di¬
vision between the ruling class and
the peonage that the building rep¬
resents.
Like a medieval fortress, faculty
are ensconced in their rows of Holi¬
day Inn offices where hallway doors
can be easily sealed and locked,
presumably to prevent hordes of
students from impinging upon quiet
time.
Faculty and staff of lesser rank
are relegated to another section of
the building where students are tol¬
erated but not encouraged to linger.
To justify its location on a uni¬
versity campus, the Peters Building
was designed with obligatory class¬
room space - a few lecture halls, but
mostly small cells with window slits
near the ceilings.
The building's courtyard sums
up the prevailing corporate attitude
about the role Of white- and blue-
collar workers in the business
world: the fountain, tables and
Clambake  ...
greenery look nice from five floors
up, but at basement level, the cold
gray expanse of concrete looks like
a prison and the office towers of the
ruling class block out the sun.
Like many other buildings on the
CSUF campus, the Peters Building
looked good on paper, but
overanalysis and excessive redesign
purged it of functionality and per¬
sonality.
The SE end of CSUF stands
alone
The New Education Building,
another victim of compromise, also
works on paper but not in practice.
New Ed does not have the dis¬
jointed, unwelcoming gangliness of
the Peters Building, but bears the
curse familiar to other CSUF build- *|
ings: a trendy design that looks
cheap and dated five years down the
road.
McLane Hall and McKee Fisk
were once trendy-and avant garde,
but are now tolerable only because
of their Sputnik-era quaintness.
Observe the neo-colonial Joyal
building sitting next to Conley Art,
which closely resembles an Egyp¬
tian tomb.
Both face the neoclassical Mu¬
sic buildings and are within close
proximity of the Satellite Student
Union, which defies architectural
categorization.
Few of CSUF's buildings bear
any resemblance in architectural
style. When administrators ponder
why various departments don't
view themselves as parts of a whole
university, they might take a look
at campus building designs that are
worlds apart.
With such wildly-differing archi¬
tectural environments, it's a won¬
der that the faculty view themselves w
as inhabitants of the same planet.
The foldableparty you can take anywhere.
It's  fun,   informative,   and 100 per cent  legal.
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 California State Unvcrsity, FresnoY	
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