Learning Resource Center

When I first signed up for German 401, the class location was listed as ARC Main LRC. I thought "What kind of alphabet soup is this?" When I found out that LRC stood for Learning Resource Center I didn't feel much better. I figured that was just a fancy name for the Library and there could be dozens of classrooms in the library. I hoped they would make it easy to find.

As it turned out, the LRC is NOT the library. It is not even in the library. It is a brand new building that is bulging with individual PCs. As you can see from the schematic above (you can click on it to see a larger version), almost half the building is dedicated to one large room, like a library reading room but with a computer on every desk. This area is designed for students who don't have other access to a computer or need the quiet, library like setting of the LRC.

Off to the side of this large room are a number of small office/cubicles meant for individual tutoring. And there are several such small rooms on the other side of the building. One thing that hit me right away was that in this building there are few right angled walls which must give the carpet layers a real challenge. Well, the placement of the computers gives teachers a fit.

Someone decided that a computer would be a big help to language instructors as the students can listen to exercises spoken by native speakers. The only trouble is that is such a small part of language classes today that most of the time we end up with an inflexible seating arrangement and a desk with no writing space.


The classrooms would work great for classes that are heavy in computer usage. But the less the computer is used, the more it is just in the way.

I was impressed with a very nice plaque at the building entrance which gives credit to all those who were somehow involved with building the LRC. And just in case you missed that tribute on the bottom of the plaque, here's an enlargement.