Over the summer while Spotts World Culture (SWC) Building was being renovated, a structural engineer discovered that the south wall of the building was separating from the other walls.
Through a process called shoring, using support beams to hold something together, the building is safe for students and staff to enter.
Mary Ann King, member of the Slippery Rock University Master Plan Committee, explained that the beams are a permanent solution to fix the separation of the south wall.
“The building is safe to occupy,” she said.
On Tuesday during common hour, President Cheryl J. Norton addressed the university with a speech. During her speech, she touched upon the status of SWC Building.
“Now Spotts is made in three parts, so it’s really just the one part that was the problem and we were able to continue to do the remodel of the classrooms on the first floor,” she said.
She explained that in order to keep the structure of the building intact, the support beams were necessary. She said that the beams have compromised the work environment for many.
Rooms 113, 114, 115, 116 and 117 were remodeled in SWC Building over the summer after the shoring was completed.
King explained that most of the listed rooms received new lighting, whiteboards, technology, paint and flooring over the summer. Rooms 114 and 116 also received new seating.
Desks in the classrooms on the first floor are now facing away from the windows too so that students now have a clear view of the professor teaching.
Last semester, it was announced that classes were no longer going to be offered on the second and third floors of SWC Building because with so many people in the hallways of the building at one time, there was too much traffic and the building was deemed unsafe.
Norton said work is being done with a construction company to figure out how to go about advancing the remodel of the second and third floor of the building now that the shoring is completed and the building is stable.
“I will tell you it’s going to take about a year to get this completed,” Norton said.
King explained that this semester with classes only being offered on the first floor, that the first-floor classrooms are heavily scheduled for classes.
She said that rooms 100 and 104 will be finished for the spring semester, which will allow more classes to be offered on the first floor.
