Whew! Coming up those stairs and switching pages was hard work.  Maybe we should get a drink from the new birdbath-style drinking fountains. When I first saw these I wondered whether someone thought we were sloppy drinkers here in Schaeffer. The basins, however, aren't any wider than the typical fountain--they just look so due to the oblong shape.

My office is in one of these new pods.  There is some variation in the size and shape of the offices, but all have new light fixtures, furniture, carpeting, and--you guessed it--air-conditioning.  (Having endured several summers in Schaeffer either without AC or with an incredibly noisy window unit, I'm not sure I can emphasize this enough.)  Some may recall that all the windows in Schaeffer were replaced a year or two prior to the actual renovation.  These, of course, have been retained (though some of the original woodwork remains).  The offices in the pods have beautiful wooden bookshelves attached to the wall.  The number of shelves varies a bit according to the size of the offices and particular structure of the walls.  (The offices down the main hallways, for example, have free-standing bookcases rather than the attached variety because of the nature of the walls will not allow for the extra load on them.)  In my office, this picture, the highest shelf is just over 8' high.  In some of the other offices there are two shelves higher than that!  It appears that we will need to recruit taller faculty members.  (I suppose I should note that the furniture and shelving in this picture are new, but the the mess is the same one I had in Schaeffer before, moved to Seashore, and have now moved back to Schaeffer.  Some things never change.)

The Political Science department office is once again located in the middle of the third floor hallway (though the number has changed to 341).  The entryway is recessed, which creates small alcove areas on the inside of the office.  The columns on either side of the door are new, as are the glass-enclosed bulletin boards on either side.  The inside of the office was redesigned and contains carpeting and all new office furniture.  When I took the outside picture we had just moved in and the place was a mess.  The second picture was taken a week or so later and things were pretty much under control by then.  Even so, you can still see that Cyndi has an open box of stuff that she is sorting through.  Also notice in this picture the plants on the window sills.  These are special plants that do best when located by windows whose shades are drawn.

Just down the hall from the main office is our "Bose" library. This room is named after Professor Sudhindra Bose who was a long time member of our faculty. The renovation of our Bose library included the addition of built-in wood bookcases (not just the attached shelves as in the faculty offices). We retained the large wooden table that is used for meetings and seminars held in the room.  Fortunately, it matches the woodwork in the room quite well.  In addition, all the office chairs in the room were replaced with adjustable office chairs with an, um, interesting, floral pattern.

Part of the compromise to keep the stairwells open was to put all the classrooms on the ground and first floors.  Each floor has one large classroom equipped with the latest media and presentation devices.  These are pictures of the large classroom on the first floor. As you can see work wasn't quite complete in the room. Some may recall that one room in Schaeffer was renovated prior to the overall renovation. This is that room. It pretty much looks the same, but the seating capacity has been reduced somewhat due to the additional changes. The carpeting has also been taken out. This might make the room a bit noisier, but it will certainly make it easier for the custodians to keep clean. The columns in the middle of the room do block a view of the front from some of the seats in the very back. Rather than a disadvantage, however, these columns create a "sweet spot" on either side of the room where students can go to contemplate their inner eyelids without distractions from the front of the room.

Most of the smaller classrooms in Schaeffer are of the standard type as shown in the first picture above.  These classrooms may look a bit boring, but anyone who has had classes in Schaeffer will certainly notice that it has better lighting, doesn't have paint peeling off the walls, and, as previously mentioned, is air-conditioned!  In addition to these typical classrooms, there are also a few that are designed for smaller seminar-type classes or which can be used for meetings.  I'm told that one of the smaller classrooms is also equipped with all the media devices, but I wasn't able to get a picture of it.

Schaeffer will now have two Instructional Technology Centers (aka, ITCs, Computer Clusters).  Both are located on the ground floor.  Statistics will run the one located in the middle of the main hallway.  The Political Science ITC is located at the north end of the building off the main hallway.  We have recently been granted permission to officially name our ITC the Vernon Van Dyke Computing Facility in honor of Professor Emeritus Van Dyke, a long-time member of our department.  One of the big advantages in our move back to Schaeffer is that we have this new computer lab with all new  furniture and computers.  (The computers, by the way, were paid for with student computing fee funds.)  Our quarters both previously in Schaeffer and later in Seashore were fairly cramped.  This new room is even large enough that we were able to expand a bit to 22 computers.  The computers we had until the move were getting very old and were unable to run much of the software now available.  As you can see from this picture of the new lab, the computers were manufactured by a company once owned by actor Claude Rains.  (If you don't get the reference, think movies.)  Actually, the computers arrived shortly after this picture was taken, as did the height-adjustable workstation that sits at the end of the second row.  In addition to being new, several of the computers have special hardware and software for use in the classes we teach in the lab.

Finally, Schaeffer now has an office that can be used by emeritus professors as well as a Commons room located at the north end of the third floor main hallway.  The Commons can be used for larger meetings or receptions, as well as a general meeting place for the folks in Schaeffer.  (I didn't get a picture of the Commons because it was being used for storage during the final stages of the work on the building.)

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Last updated on 10/9/97 by TH (timothy-hagle@uiowa.edu)