Skip to Navigation
University of Pittsburgh
Print This Page Print this pages

April 2, 1998

Seating capacities, other complaints about Pitt classrooms being reviewed

A sign outside 218 Cathedral of Learning says the classroom can hold 30 people. But students and instructors say the room can comfortably fit only 25.

The discrepancy lies with the fact that the signs are based on City fire code occupancy limits, which themselves are based on square footage and not on human comfort or modern desk sizes.

The problem is, Pitt has been admitting students to classes in those rooms based on the posted limits.

But now, in response to complaints by the University Senate plant utilization and planning committee (PUP), staff from the Registrar's office and Facilities Management are re-examining seating capacities in the Cathedral of Learning's 40 non-Nationality Room classrooms.

Based on the study, Facilities Management will post new signs near the existing ones, setting realistic seating limits, University Registrar Samuel Conte told PUP March 26.

So far, the study has found three classrooms where posted seating limits were too high, Conte said. "I expect the problem is bigger than three out of 40 [classrooms], but I don't know for sure yet," he said.

Because the Registrar's office already has scheduled classes in many of the rooms through next fall, overcrowding may not be fully alleviated until spring 1999, Conte warned.

He also said Facilities Management is looking into complaints that faculty aren't provided with the right color chalk or felt-tip pens for the rainbow of black, green, blue, gray and rust colored boards now used in Pitt classrooms.

At their January meeting, PUP members said instructors often find there isn't any chalk in their classrooms, or that it's the wrong color for their boards — especially the hated gray boards, on which no color shows up well, they said.

"The blue boards are fine. So are the rust boards," said committee member Jonathan Harris, a political science professor. "It's those gray boards that are the problem." Conte said Pitt's administration will not buy any more gray boards. "Ana Guzman [associate vice chancellor for Facilities Management] is checking the locations of all of the gray boards on campus. She suggested maybe relocating them all to one general location, so it will be easier for her people to maintain them," Conte said.

Facilities Management administrators are telling custodians to make sure classrooms are stocked with chalk and pens — also, to see that chairs and desks do not "migrate" from one classroom to another, Conte said.

— Bruce Steele


Leave a Reply