PHOTO BY JAKE AUERBACH This past winter, the floor in the Vogel Community Room began to separate. The floor has been replaced with a synthetic wood.
Some students enjoy studying in silence, some enjoy the quiet murmur of coffee shops, but rarely do students enjoy studying to the buzz of power drills. Over the last month some students have had to cope with just that.
Since the start of this semester there has been construction being carried out on the second floor of the Learning Commons. The work is being done to replace the floor covering in the Vogel Community Room.
“This past winter we noticed some separation with the glue-down bamboo floor,” said Doug Beukelman, Vice President for Financial Affairs. “We figured we could just replace parts of it, but over the course of taking out the offending strips, we realized we would be better off taking out the whole floor.”
The timeline for the project has been somewhat unanticipated.
“We had been dealing with it off and on between the contractor and dealer who supplied the product through the late winter and spring,” Buekelman said. “But things intensified over the summer when we decided it all had to come out and be replaced with something different.”
The process of refinishing the Vogel Community Room has not been a short one. After deciding that the floor needed to be replaced, workers set about removing the old floor paneling and baseboards, then began the difficult task of grinding down all the concrete underneath.
Once the concrete was smoothed down, the next step was picking a new type of floor covering. The contractors deliberated between different products such as tile, a different type of wood, or synthetic coverings.
“We decided to use a “wood look” product,” Beukelman said. “It was clear to us that it was not worth running the risk of trying to use wood again.”
“We decided to use a ‘wood look’ product,” Beukelman said. “It was clear to us that it was not worth running the risk of trying to use wood again.”
This way, the Vogel Community Room can keep the same look as it had before, while avoiding the same problems. The Learning Commons is still under the construction contractor’s warranty, so the new flooring did not cost the school any money.
Beukelman acknowledged that noise could potentially be an issue for students trying to study, but the college decided that it was something that needed to be dealt with promptly.
Although there has been more noise present in the Learning Commons than usual, students have learned to cope with it.
“It made a good deal of noise, and reading was made somewhat difficult, but the noise never forced me to stop reading or leave the Learning Commons,” said Mawuli MacDonald, who works in the Learning Commons as a tutor and at the research help desk.
While students have admitted that the amount of noise was not ideal, it has not been a severe issue.
“Most of the noise was made during the day, so it never interfered with my tutoring sessions after dinner,” MacDonald said.
Ben Karnish, the Access Services Coordinator, works on the first floor of the Learning Commons. He said he hasn’t found the construction to be too disruptive and that the construction work avoided interfering with students.
“It seemed to be more heavyset in the morning, which was good in terms of the student population,” Karnish said. “Working-wise, I am kind of used to the noise. The Learning Commons has more noise near the coffee shop, as opposed to other areas.”
The good news is that the construction in the Learning Commons is drawing to a close. The Vogel Community Room is basically finished, and Beukelman said no projects this major are expected to be needed again.
Due to wise planning, the workers’ consideration for the students and an understanding attitude from the students, a major issue has been tackled without disrupting too many students’ study habits.
“It was certainly an inconvenience for the students,” Beukelman said. “But luckily, the noisy, dusty portion of the work is done, and the students have been very understanding thus far.”
