The Journal

Issue date: 9/28/06 Section: News

Media Credit: Jennifer Wenger Adjunct faculty Didi Noelker answers students' questions during her Essentials of Biology lab in Webster Hall, room 19. This room is used for several course such as physics, chemistry and nursing, but the biology students still do not have designated rooms they can use as labs. As of now, they have to rearrange the room and move equipment in and out of the room during each class.

Webster University has a problem with space. The school has been forced to rent out rooms at Webster Groves High School in order to accommodate classes and many departments are finding it hard to fit students and faculty into their respective buildings.

John Buck, assistant dean of students, said renting space at Webster Groves High School is a good indication of the space problem at Webster.

"As long as we're renting space at the high school then, yes, the system as a whole needs space," Buck said.

Debra Carpenter, dean of the School of Communications, laughed out loud when asked if Webster had issues with classroom space.

"That's such an overwhelming question," Carpenter said. "We've had to put classrooms into studios and we've had to put studios into closets. We turned our mailroom into an office."

Carpenter jokingly added there were considerations to hang hammocks up in the lobby of the Sverdrup building to serve as faculty offices in order to save space.

Across the campus, professors are having to cope with limited space and growing numbers of students. From 1999 to the present, full time and part time graduate and undergraduate enrollment increased by 1,549 students at the Webster Groves campus.

"Everybody is screaming for space," Joyce Bork, chair of the biological sciences department, said. "Everybody needs space because of enrollment."

Bork said the university's location has proved to be a major hindrance on expansion.

"You try to plan for these things, but we are landlocked," Bork said. "There is a limit on how far we can go."

Continued...

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