Throughout a student’s educational career, the environment in their classroom becomes increasingly important. If a classroom is distracting and messy, students will become distracted and have a difficult time learning. This in turn will result in poor grades and an unwillingness to pay attention to and retain information presented to them. At Park University many of the buildings have classrooms that need to be renovated, but as of April 23, 2018 Park has started renovations on the Copley-Thaw building. The renovations being made will include putting new furniture in and painting five classrooms including room 300 on the top floor of Copley, which is a great start. “Is this all Copley needs? No, Copley needs a couple million dollars worth of work, but we only have so much money to spend every year,” said Brian Bode, chief financial officer at Park University. That money is allocated throughout the buildings that have priority for that year to fix things, such as, heating and cooling units, lighting and electricity, and the layout of the classroom all of which can be extreme distractions to students in the Copley-Thaw building.

When looking at the heating and cooling system in Copley you will notice a couple things. First, Copley uses old steam radiators and window air conditioning units and second, these heating and cooling methods are ridiculously loud, which causes a huge distraction for not only the students, but also the professor teaching the class. “It’s really hot in the rooms, the air conditioners are really loud and it’s hard to hear in speech classes. I know on the third floor especially, we turn off the air conditioner so we can all hear the speaker and then everyone is, you know, sweating and it’s harder to pay attention when you’re so hot,” said Lora Cohn, associate professor of communications. According to a study done at Westview High School in Beaverton, Oregon students perform better on exams when the temperature in the classroom is around 72 degrees Fahrenheit and that the students perform worse the higher the classroom temperature is. In order to fix this problem in Copley, Park has a few options they can look at, they can put ceiling fans in the classrooms to help circulate the air and help create better air flow or they could invest in central air conditioning. Investing in central air would be a major expense for Park, but the change would pay for itself in less than ten years with the reduction in maintenance and energy costs, which, is what Brian Bode hopes will happen with the new heating and central air conditioning in Mackay Hall.

Similar to changing the methods used to heat and cool Copley, a change in lighting will also play a major part in increasing student productivity while in the classroom. Currently, Copley uses fluorescent lights throughout its halls and classrooms. These fluorescents have been known not only to cause migraines in students and professors, but they have also been known to increase the amount of stress and anxiety students feel while in the classroom. This stress causes students to become distracted and not be able to participate fully in class discussions, which will significantly decrease the productivity of the entire class. In order to solve this issue Park University can change the lightbulbs they use in Copley to either full spectrum fluorescent bulbs or adjustable LED lights. Both lighting options have advantages. Full spectrum fluorescent lighting mimics daylight and provides lighting that is significantly less harsh to the eyes than the current lighting in Copley. The same is true for adjustable LED lights, but this lighting method also decreases stress and uses 75 percent less energy than the fluorescent bulbs that are currently in use. Making this small change will not only increase productivity and reduce the cost of lighting in Copley, but throughout campus if used in other buildings.

Once the temperature and lighting of a room are changed to decrease stress and increase the comfortability of students in a classroom environment the next logical step would be to look at the layout of the classroom as a whole. Currently, this is what Park University is spending the most time and money on. Park has started placing new furniture in a few classrooms in Copley, most notably in rooms 202 and 300. This is not all that can be done to design a layout that meets the needs of students who attend classes in this building. “We should get white boards on more walls and get the big tv screens up since we have money in the budget to buy technology. Imagine Copley 300 with four desk pods of students, get rid of the podium altogether, have a tv screen on the long wall without windows, get some white boards on the bigger space in 300 on the opposite side of the tv screen, and just see where the teacher goes, where do they stand? I think this would make the classroom more dynamic,” said Cohn. Creating a dynamic environment where students are grouped together and can discuss course material freely would increase the attention span of students and how they engage not only with the professor, but with each other. This allows for more collaboration between students and also increases the students’ understanding and retention of information presented to them.

Having an up-to-date building with new heating, central air, relaxing lighting, and a dynamic layout is the dream of every student who steps foot into Copley, however, in order for this dream to become a reality, students have to speak up, make their voices heard. It does not just have to be Copley that gets renovated, it could be Chestnut, the classrooms in Mackay, or another building that you, as a student, are passionate about. The priority list for renovations is decided on by the chief financial officer Brian Bode, [email protected] the interim provost Michelle Myers, [email protected]. All you have to do is contact them, let them know what building you would like to see on the renovation list and what parts of the building you would like to see renovated.