I am not a number.
So it’s beyond disheartening when I see that my major—Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies—has been left out of the floor plan of the renovated South College.
Recently, the University set forth its agenda to knock down Bartlett Hall, but leave homeless many of the majors that call Bartlett their home, including WGSS, Art History, English and Philosophy. There is no plan to relocate them to a centralized location, or to even create a new home that would meet their needs. The renovated version of South College, which has been marketed as a partial replacement for Bartlett Hall, is planned to feature a series of lecture halls.
It’s alarming to hear this, seeing as these disciplines typically do not use, or even need, lecture halls. In WGSS, students do not learn from lectures. We are taught through class dialogue and discussion. We are taught through conversation, which is something that a lecture hall fails to support. We need smaller spaces in order to facilitate intimate relationships between our faculty and students. To instead give us lecture halls is a complete slap in the face.
What’s worse is that this disrespect is nothing new to members of the WGSS department. My advisor sits in an office with a temporary wall, and while we are talking, everyone in the office can hear what I am saying to her. God forbid I ever receive privacy to speak about struggles with my studies; no, that would be far too much to ask of the school that I am paying over $20,000 a year to attend.
And that’s just the start. I have had classes in Bartlett Hall for a total of 5 semesters now. I have been in rooms that are overheated or not heated at all, rooms that have broken clocks and rooms that are constantly bombarded by loud banging noises. It’s not conducive to learning.
This renovation could destroy WGSS, the one place on this campus that has actually given me a home. WGSS has one of the most positive student evaluations of all the departments of this campus. To lose this program would not only harm its students but also the university as a whole. This campus needs my major and the thinkers it creates. This campus needs people who challenge inequality and injustice, who strive to make the world a better place.
Recently at a meeting to discuss other possibilities for the new building, an idea was introduced that each department, “would be in a nicer space than they are in now.” When your “space” is strewn about the building and already subpar, this idea is not promising much.
This is unacceptable, and students will not stand for it. We are not numbers and we will not be silenced or ignored.
To show your support and continued to be updated on the university’s plans, please join our Facebook page “Students for a New Humanities Center at UMass Amherst.”
Kelsey Barowich
Class of 2015
Locke • Jan 26, 2014 at 3:24 pm
I’m going to have to agree with Blue Crow. The Women’s Studies department is already in a rather terrible building, and now they’ll just have to move to rooms in the new South College, as well as rooms in Machmer vacated by departments moving to the New Academic Classroom Building. South College would be a partial replacement, but that does not mean that those departments left our of South College will not have space.
The sciences have been dwelling in infested dungeons in the north of campus, so HFA really shouldn’t complain.
Also, there is a plan to build something after Bartlet gets demolished. There would be, after all, a very significant empty lot of space there. In that vein, I direct you to the UMass Master Plan, which describes this in more detail: http://www.umass.edu/cp/MPFinal.pdf
Blue Crow • Jan 25, 2014 at 11:31 pm
What I am really confused about here is the fact that you imply that classes within your major and similar ones are incompatible with a lecture hall. If you really want a discussion while in a lecture hall, then sit in the first couple rows and just turn your head 0-180 degrees when others are speaking. In fact, I would argue that lecture halls are better because the professor can use a microphone and allow focus on the front in order to more easily lead a lecture.
But what really bugs me about this article is the arrogant tone. Firstly, you say that Bartlett is being renovated, but then say “My advisor sits in an office with a temporary wall, and while we are talking, everyone in the office can hear what I am saying to her. God forbid I ever receive privacy to speak about struggles with my studies…” and “I have had classes in Bartlett Hall for a total of 5 semesters now. I have been in rooms that are overheated or not heated at all, rooms that have broken clocks and rooms that are constantly bombarded by loud banging noises. It’s not conducive to learning.” So, on other words, your angry about how bad Bartlett is, but then then you are angry that UMASS is doing something about it?
Secondly, you do realize that there are other majors that are in a MUCH worse off position then yours? For example, the physics department is located in a dilapidated building with cockroaches skittering around in many of the lecture halls, along with technology from the 40’s and 50’s. I wouldn’t even consider your major in that much trouble.
Thirdly,I find it adorable when you say ” …that would be far too much to ask of the school that I am paying over $20,000 a year to attend.” Pulling the money argument for something as frivolous as moving to a different building is almost laughable.
N. • Jan 25, 2014 at 3:07 pm
that’s a bit over the top LCF.
liberal college freshman • Jan 25, 2014 at 1:16 am
“God forbid I ever receive privacy to speak about struggles with my studies”
first of all, keep your religion out of my public school. second, i see the victim complex is deeply engrained in this one when you refer to your “struggles with my studies” as if they were suppressing your right to vote or something.