By Joseph Martinez
WALK THIS WAY (Andrea Grout)
By Joseph Martinez
New students to Riverside Community College have been introduced to a new center for learning, not the Martin Luther King building, but the Lovekin Field classroom complex.
For the next two years, Lovekin field is the replacement series of classrooms for the A.G Paul Quadrangle.
The Quadrangle is planned to undergo renovations, in particular the classrooms will be given greater functionality for professors and students.
Though the Lovekin Field Complex has been in use since the summer intersession, most students are new to it this fall semester. It may have been a surprise and disappointment to those who were unassuming, while perhaps landing a dull note among freshmen.
As students filtered into the classroom complex, it was exciting and worthy to gauge their reactions to the new setup.
Interviewed students expressed a mosaic of impressions, some believing it to be a model of functionality, others lacking, and others disappointed by its dull drab exteriors and layout.
Student Ben Kwiecien commented on the simple design scheme of the quad.
“It serves its purpose. The drinking fountains are a bold green, and are grouped together, along with the bathrooms, for efficient layout,” he said.
Some students elaborated on its ease of access, along with the classrooms’ comforts. Classrooms have climate control, along with electrical and internet functionality. One student, Anthony Sierra, complained of the design for resembling a concentration camp, the surrounding stadium lights lending for the effect.
Instructor Oliver Thomas and his students benefitted with Internet access.Yet the air conditioners can become noisy during class time, as instructor Peter Hodges noted. Security and safety at the new Lovekin complex is being watched over by a police staff of five.
Another security employee, on nighttime duty, related the need to lock classrooms subtracted from time on patrol.
The security would improve with more hired officers, the employee said, because the five on duty, day or night, is inadequate. More officers would be helpful to monitor the comings and goings at the campus, in the parking lots, in the classroom areas, the police employee said.
The future Lovekin remains unsettled in student affairs.
While some students desired for it to be removed in time, felt it could be a useful part of Riverside Community Colleges’ future.
