University cracking down on unauthorized usage of classrooms | UConn Daily Campus

Anna Zarra Aldrich, staff writer for The Daily Campus summarizes, "Students at UConn have encountered more difficulties using classrooms and lecture halls to watch movies after hours this semester."

UConn has begun cracking down on students utilizing the lecture hall's projectors after hours.
Photo: Olivia Stenger/The Daily Campus

“For the majority of last semester, I used several different lecture halls to watch movies with friends on the weekends, sometimes we ran into other people, but no trouble happened until we got back from winter break,”, a second-semester actuarial science major, Natalie Baliker said.

Baliker said the projector and light systems began turning off in the middle of the movies while she was watching them and then the system would display a message that it was locked until 6 a.m.

“We weren’t sure why it was a problem all of a sudden, since we never had any issues until this semester,” Baliker said.

UConn’s Spokesperson Stephanie Reitz said the classrooms are only to be used for academic purposes or club activities with a reservation.

“The classrooms often have valuable technology that can be broken, everything from the white boards to the automated window blinds, so the University has to control and monitor the use of the rooms to ensure the items are safe and in good operating order,” Reitz said.  

There have been instances of the classrooms being disrupted, Reitz said.

“We’ve had several instances in which items have been broken or classrooms have been left with the furnishings disorganized and trash dropped throughout, and obviously that poses a problem when students and professors arrive the next morning for class,” Reitz said.

There was even one incident when an individual fell asleep in one of the classrooms, Reitz said.

Inappropriate usage of academic facilities has become a larger problem in recent years, Reitz said.

“It’s happened most frequently in the last two years since we opened Oak Hall,” Reitz said.

Reitz said the University has been more diligent in monitoring unauthorized usage of classroom technology this semester.

“We’ve been monitoring it more closely this semester and enforcing it more stringently, as will be the case going forward,” Reitz said.

University Information Technology Services receives a notification any time someone logs into the system after it automatically shuts down at 11 p.m. and can turn it off again remotely, Reitz said.
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Source: UConn Daily Campus