Last month, Fresno State President Dr. Joseph Castro announced the university will invest $26 million dollars in campus infrastructure by the year 2019.
Fresno State students weighed in on what needs to be improved on campus.
The funds would include updates in the Grosse Industrial Technology Building, McLane Hall and Peters Business Building.
Mackenzie Woods, a sophomore animal science major who has a class in the Peters Business Building, said, there was not enough room to fit her class of almost 50 students at the beginning of the semester.
“There wasn’t [enough seats] the first day,” Woods said. “There is now, but it’s like every one to a seat. There’s not an extra seat anywhere.”
The room is currently used as a computer lab and classroom. Woods believes the class should be taught in a lecture hall.
“It’s pretty cramped in there, I probably would like to expand that room quite a bit,” Woods said.
Josie Woodcock, a junior animal science major, is concerned about the wireless internet issues that are in her class in McLane Hall. Her instructor uses an online program called Top Hat and is used for immediate student feedback through surveys and polls.
And the issues with technology typically become a burden.
“The Wi-Fi, that’s the biggest thing,” Woodcock said. “She [the professor] uses Top Hat. If we’re not able to do the schoolwork in class, it’s kind of hard when you’re supposed to be following along on your laptop, and you can’t get the internet to work.”
Woodcock would like to see the classrooms with stronger internet capabilities that can handle a large class.
Across campus, in the Grosse Industrial Technology Building, some engineering students are seeing some issues and potential solutions.
Jennifer Lozano and Gabriela Cervantes, freshmen civil engineering majors, also have class in the Grosse Industrial Technology building.
“It’s not very aesthetically pleasing. It doesn’t really look like something you would consider an industrial tech building,” Lozano said. “When you think about industrial technology, you think about innovation, and [Grosse] looks like it’s outdated.”
Cervantes has class in the evening and fears the outdoor halls at night.
“There’s classes at night there so whenever you walk through there it’s very creepy,” Cervantes said.
Lozano and Cervantes said that the restrooms down the hall along with a lack of lighting make students vulnerable to experience safety issues.
“Someone could be easily caught off guard,” Lozano said.
And there is an interest for more artistic buildings. Lozano said many of the empty display cases should be filled.
“I want more examples of student work,” Lozano said. “It has to be something that represents how innovative Fresno State students are and how we have progressed.”