By Bryant King; The Whetstone

Students at Wesley College can expect to have classes moved around next semester.

The heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems at the college will be replaced toward the end of the spring semester causing classes to move to different buildings.

This will affect five of the college’s buildings, including College Center, Cannon Hall, Slaybaugh, Dulany, and Parker Library.

It may be the labs that are most affected.

“We have plans to place science labs into Carpenter Hall as multipurpose labs,” Pat Seunarine, registrar and director of student academic records, said.

She and the registrar office are coordinating where classes will be once the buildings are shut down.

 “Instead of having multiple labs to completely move we will be downsizing the number of labs due to limited space to move into but still having all of the equipment needed,” she said.

Sophomore Tori Albanese said this will disturb students.

“Students I don’t think will be as focused when classes get moved around,” she said. “Especially the classes in the media rooms, or ones with specific accommodations. They will have so much trouble for when this happens.”

Seunarine said she knows of student and faculty concerns.

“We are trying our hardest to not interrupt students’ workflow,” she said. “We will be moving the multimedia computer lab to Longwood 101 for media majors and any other class who may need access to it.”

Ron Douglas, chair of the multimedia communication department, said there would be less of an effect on students than it may seem.

“There won’t be huge class changes,” he said. “They will just migrate somewhere else. I don’t expect there to be a major disruption. There is space we can go and we will just walk a little farther than normal.”

Seunarine also said many classes will be “hybrid” ones, half online and half in-class.

“Wherever we can consolidate classes we are trying,” she said. “I am encouraging professors to switch to hybrid classes if possible.”

Some students said they were excited about the hybrid classes.

“The hybrid classes seem like a really good idea a lot of students will like it as long as it does not interfere with what is being taught,” Nick Gillock, junior nursing student, said.  

Seunarine said the school is trying to balance the limited space that will be available and the time each class needs.

“At the same time we are again ensuring that we do not take away from anyone’s learning experience,” she said.

The plans for the HVAC repairs are scheduled for late March or April.

However, if this winter is very cold and the HVAC needs to be replaced earlier, the college is also planning for that possibility.

 “We are hoping for pushing it as late into the semester as possible,” Seunarine said. “But if there is a point where it gets too cold we will have to cut off that plan and push the repairs up sooner than expected.”

Douglas said work has to be done.

“Just like driving across the Bay Bridge when there is a lane closed for repair, you will hit more traffic and be inconvenienced, but in the long run it is necessary and will be helpful later on.”