The construction of classroom space in the next few years will focus as much on technology as on bricks and mortar.
Tech-savvy students and instructors will feel at home in the upcoming Warren and Leta Giedt Hall, due to open in 2006. Construction on the $7.5 million facility will begin next summer at a site near Kemper Hall in the Engineering/Physical Sciences district of campus, said Rick Keller, assistant vice chancellor for capital resource management.
"Our goal is to make these buildings as wired as possible so instructors have multiple options to choose from when using technology to educate our students," said Keller.
Keller said Giedt Hall's 250-seat Rand and Ted Schaal Auditorium will be Web-based with a state-of-the-art projection system capable of "bright, crisp pictures" for presentations and classroom exercises. The two-story facility will provide five new classrooms and lecture rooms for up to 650 student seats, serving general assignment classes with a special emphasis on engineering and science instruction.
Last fall the campus selected the San Francisco-based MBT Architecture firm to lay out the blueprint for Giedt Hall. Shortly thereafter a building committee was formed to explore how the building would be used.
The campus is developing new classroom space to fulfill its instructional needs, and Giedt is one example. Overall, Keller says, the campus needs to "catch up" with student enrollment. The campus also has under construction a new 500-seat lecture facility as part of the Sciences Laboratory Building, due to open next winter.
Once Giedt Hall is complete, Keller says the campus plans to review its classroom usage in light of enrollment projections and instructional needs.
"Our objective is to have options on how to respond to changing needs in the classroom," Keller said.
Part of the problem is that state mandates on classroom space have made it difficult for UC Davis to plan for instructional capacity, Keller said. In 2002-03, UC Davis' classroom usage was at 100 percent of the California Post-secondary Education Commission guidelines, which means that all available classroom seats are utilized an average of 35 hours per week.
"We want sufficient flexibility in our class sizes," said Keller, adding that California arguably has the toughest classroom usage standards in the country.
"The state's rationale is that they want to carefully gauge any new investment in classroom space," said Keller. "But often times an institution must move sooner rather than later in meeting its obligations to the academic community, and adequate classroom space is a clear responsibility for any university."
As a result, about four years ago the university decided to seek more development funds and gifts for building projects rather than depend wholly on state funds.
For example, for Giedt Hall, the university received two donations from UC Davis faculty -- a $2.5 million gift from Warren Giedt and his wife, Leta, and a second gift of $400,000 from Rand Schaal and his father, Ted.
Giedt is a professor emeritus in mechanical and aeronautical engineering.
Schaal is a professor emeritus of geology, and a UC Davis graduate. His classes on the solar system and lunar geology were popular and drew hundreds of students. He and his father made a gift of $1.4 million to UC Davis in 1998. Of that, $1 million was designated to build the Schaal Aquatics Center.
Draft plans for Giedt Hall's three larger rooms call for tiered, fixed seating and a full complement of audiovisual equipment. The smaller rooms would have loose chairs to provide flexibility in their use.
During the past several years, Keller noted, the campus has remodeled classrooms in Young, Everson, Wellman and Olson halls, and has opened new classroom space in some of its professional schools, such as veterinary medicine.
All new classrooms and many existing ones will have or will be upgraded for "smart panels." The smart panel makes possible the concurrent operation of up to four output devices, such as computers, VCRs, DVD players, and document cameras.
Billy Sanders, an assistant dean in the College of Engineering and member of the classroom space committee, says that as the campus has grown in student enrollments, particularly at the undergraduate level, the number of campus classrooms and the mix of large and small rooms have not kept pace.
"From a College of Engineering perspective," Sanders said, "we have completely outgrown the small classrooms in Bainer Hall, and there are no lecture classrooms in either Kemper Hall or Engineering III."
As engineering enrollments have continued to increase, the college has found that they need lecture halls that accommodate 125-200 students, similar to many other programs on campus, he said.
"We are very excited about the new classroom facility at Giedt Hall," Sanders said, noting that the campus provided matching support to the Giedt's gift. "This new classroom facility will be near the engineering sector of campus, and will provide us with three lectures halls accommodating 150, 175, and 250 seats respectively, and two 40-seat classrooms."
He said the biggest issues facing the campus space committee are timing and funding. "Unfortunately, our needs and financial resources are going in opposite directions."