The new spring semester has begun at FAU and students are finding it more difficult to locate their classes due to new untitled buildings, outdated maps, and obsolete directories. This has become a nuisance to both students and teachers on their way to class.
Last year, the construction workers were quite busy here at FAU. The new Business College and the Louis and Anne Green Memory and Wellness Center have been completed. FAU is also proud to welcome the new Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing. Although these buildings are visible to students, they have no clue which building is which, unless they get real close and read the name from a small paper taped to the front doors. Since it’s still under construction and set to open in the late spring of 2005, it is understandable that it has not yet been posted on the campus map.
Still, at the beginning of each new semester, more and more students are getting lost and are obligated to ask others for directions to the right building. The scant blue directories, map kiosks, and current maps, which are spread around the campus, don’t do their jobs properly. “I got lost at orientation,” says sophomore Jonathan Tavaris, an English education major. “I also have a difficult time with the science buildings off the breezeway! I can never figure out which is which!”
“Signs on buildings do not stand out at all,” adds second year student Nicole Borter, an Arts and Humanities major. “When one of my friends asked the info booth at the FAU entrance where the Police Building was located, they had to call three times to give her an answer. It was really funny!”
Apparently the new buildings are not the only ones hard to locate; students and teachers are also having a difficult time finding some of the older buildings as well. Students usually have to make sure that they are in the right building by asking fellow classmates or checking again before entering the building. “They should probably put the abbreviations or numbers on the buildings,” suggested Borter, “Maybe that will make it easier for everyone.”
It turns out that the campus maps continue to remain unchanged and the new buildings are without names because of the branding initiative, which has been recently postponed until later in the spring of 2005. “We have been trying not to invest money to put up these signs, knowing that we were going to have to redo the signs with a new logo on it,” says Evita Dashtaki, Director of Specializations at the Boca Raton Campus at FAU. “As for the kiosk maps, the company that makes them got so backlogged with the hurricanes and then the holidays, that they’ve been unable to install them.”
The Art Sign Company has helped install these kiosk maps and the big blue directories on FAU campus. Ms. Dashtaki apologized for any inconvenience this may have caused students, saying that indeed this turned out to be even more problematic than they thought. “There were a lot of emails going back and forth regarding people having a hard time finding their way,” she said. “We got approached by the Fire Station saying that when they come on campus they need to have a better way of finding these buildings. We are looking into that and exploring what’s the best way to find these buildings,” she adds.
The Department of Specializations has created a design package for the vehicular directional signs along the roads that surround the campus and several pedestrian signs that will be placed on campus. This package will have to wait until the feel and design of the new logo is decided and announced so that the new emblem will be incorporated into the design of the package. Until then, Ms. Dashtaki recommends printing an updated campus map from Oasis, so students could use it when they go looking for their classes. In the meantime, the school awaits its new logo and posted names for the new buildings. This will all probably be completed in spring 2005. “All we can do now is just manage as before, I guess,” says sophomore Nicole Borter.
