Human beings are hard-wired to accept things, to comply with instruction. It is an evolutionary trait that carried over through time and causes society to persist with practices that should be questioned and reformed. We call these calcified practices “tradition.”

It seems safe to assume that a system so important, widespread and traditional as the one that provides our education is efficient. But I think that assumption is extremely dangerous.

Education is tasked with the intellectual formation of every member of our society. What if that system is fundamentally flawed in some way? The system of education could be creating a society that is unintelligent, shallow and has only bits and pieces of knowledge they never use floating around their brains.

Traditional education is sitting students of similar age in a room during a scheduled time so that a qualified teacher will lecture on the approved subject matter and assign homework, tests and grades which will ultimately weigh your academic performance.

What makes a teacher qualified? Suppose the system of education used to create teachers is flawed.

Who decided that academic performance is important or that homework or grades are efficient? How do we know that tests measure accurately a student’s grasp on a subject?

Regardless of the answers, no one is really asking these questions. There are boards of education across this nation and around the world thinking about curriculum reviews and how long students should stay in school.

We assume traditional practices work. Why? Because they’ve been around a long time, which just might be what’s wrong with them.

These traditions are the foundation of a system responsible for molding our entire society, which I believe calls for them to be questioned constantly.

There are an abundance of successful programs that use nontraditional methods.

The “Hole in the Wall” program in India taught over 60 children English and computer skills by simply embedding a computer on a wall in a rural village.

A program called “Sementinha” taught Brazilian children about science, math and Portuguese by having discussion circles under a mango tree and playing games.

Neither of those programs had teachers, textbooks or grades.

Although those are two extreme examples, they show what can be accomplished far outside our conventional view of education.

Students need to take it upon themselves to challenge what is automatically accepted when we think of education.

Still unidentified, the driver of the car was taken away in an ambulance.

“He was conscious and alert,” Prout said. “But he obviously had a head injury.”

The car, a blue 1993 Buick Century, had an imprint of the driver’s head on the plate glass window, indicating a strong hit.

“Shows what happens when you don’t wear a seatbelt,” Prout said.

Taken away by a tow truck, the car had lost half of its grill and leaked a large amount of anti-freeze fluid on the pavement.

There is no definite word on the cause for the accident, but Prout says the driver simply did not see the wide concrete base of the pole.

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The completion date is still slated as March 13 for the building and May 20 for the landscape. The substantial completion date marks when a building can be used for its intended purpose, said Steve Lawrence, associate vice president of Facilities Management.

Once complete, users of the Education Building will enjoy some of the newest technology available.

“We have state-of-the-art technology,” said Kathryn Koch, associate dean of the College of Education and Human Services. “Faculty will have the opportunity to record all of their lectures and demonstrations, so students will be able to receive them through podcasts or Blackboard.”

Two of the features of classrooms in the building will be entirely new to any building on campus.

Outside each room there will be a touch-screen digital display called a RoomWizard, showing the room’s schedule, so that students can know when the classroom is available for use.

White boards will be equipped with a Copycam, a device that captures what is written on the board and allows it to be transmitted through the internet.

“Students will have the ability to reserve study areas, seminar rooms, or classrooms and take full advantage of the technology in them as part of their learning experience,” said Linda Slater, director of plant engineering and planning, in an e-mail to Central Michigan Life.

Three rooms in the building will support remote conferencing, and many rooms will be able to be repurposed at any time.

Furniture and technology costs for the building have been finalized at $2.8 and $4.1 million, respectively.

These costs are included in the $50 million budget for the building.

The furniture will start being moved into the building in late March, and is scheduled to take two months to complete.

Viewed as an initiative toward a more environmentally-friendly campus, the building will be the first at CMU to be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified.

Facilities Management expects the building to be silver-certified, but the final decision will not come until six months to a year from the building’s completion, due to a backlog at the U.S. Green Building Council.

The new building will be for the College of Education and Human Services and its various departments, which are currently spread around campus.

“(The education building) represents the addressing of current and future needs, learning needs for students within the college,” Koch said. “It addresses the need to make students familiar with what is needed in the classroom in the early 21st century and beyond, it makes them aware of new teaching methods. We also hope that this kind of facility will join us more with the community.”

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Prior to their Thursday meeting, the Trustees toured the building, which will start being loaded with furniture and technology in March, under the guidance of College of Education and Health and Human Services Dean Karen Adams.

Board Chairman Jeff Caponigro said the Trustees are proud of the building and its progress.

“You can see it’s clearly a model of contemporary education,” he said. “It wasn’t one classroom after another classroom, like you see in other buildings. We’re using the latest technology.”

Board members were the first taken through the 200-seat auditorium in the north face of the building, which includes only a tiered cement floor and metal stumps where desks will eventually stand.

They toured the observation laboratories on the first and second floors, mediated classrooms on the third floor and faculty offices on the fourth floor.

Back in the first floor, the tour concluded by showcasing the room funded by University President Michael Rao and his wife.

“The building is approximately 80 percent complete and on schedule,” said Director of Plant Engineering and Planning Linda Slater.

Slater said furniture and technology should be moved in by mid-March. Landscape is expected later, in late May. The grand opening is scheduled for September 2009.

The $50 million building will include four observation laboratories, a fully flexible classroom where the screen, lectern and seating can be changed freely, and an outdoor learning center on the south-facing side of the building.

Ray Francis, professor of teacher education and professional development, said the technology in the building opens new possibilities for teaching, and might even lead to the creation of new courses.

CMU is making an effort to purchase furniture made with recycled content as part of a push to make the education building eco-friendly.

The building is expected to be the first on campus to be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified.

Reduced water and energy consumption, a light-well to bring in daylight from the roof and a “green,” or vegetative, roof are some of the LEED features.

Workers are currently installing terra cotta rain screens and slate on the building’s exterior.

“It’s a great model for sustainable buildings we might see in the future,” Caponigro said.

The opening and operating budget for the building includes funding for four custodians, one landscape operations caretaker, one architectural trades helper and one HVACR journeyman, said Steve Lawrence, associate vice president of Facilities Management.

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But there are people working to make sure they don’t become a problem to those students. Bob Andrews is one of those people.

“I deal with insects or animals that create a health hazard or are a nuisance to students or staff,” said the Pest Management Specialist for Pest Control.

Andrews was hired full time as a pest management specialist by Residence Life.

Associate Director of Residence Life Joan Schmidt said there has been a pest management specialist on campus for at least 15 years.

“(Bob is) out everyday on campus. He’s kept very busy,” she said. “We’ve got 1,700 residence hall rooms and a little over 400 apartments. It’s a lot of ground to cover.”

College campuses are not strangers to insect infestations.

Many universities throughout the nation have reported a rising problem with bedbugs in the last five years, according to a Los Angeles Times article.

Although CMU hasn’t had a bedbug problem, insect and pest issues still happen occasionally.

“There are a lot of calls with ant issues year round. Bees are more of a seasonal issue,” Andrews said. “Occasionally there are issues with a mouse or ground squirrel.”

Pest issues can also vary wildly with the seasons.

Summer is the busiest time for pest management, Schmidt said.

“This summer we had a problem with bats all over campus,” she said.

In order to prevent larger issues, Residence Life and Facilities Management take several preventive measures.

Building managers are trained to handle pest problems, screens are installed and maintained in residence hall rooms and facilities are sealed during the winter.

“There are issues from time to time. When you have as many people and buildings as we do, you’re bound to have issues with that,” said Steve Lawrence, associate vice president of Facilities Management. “But we really don’t have a lot of pest issues.”

Pests can be more than a nuisance on college campuses.

Many insects and animals can transmit diseases and cause problems to buildings and people.

“People are afraid (of insects),” Schmidt said. “Some are allergic to stings and bites, so we have to be very careful.”

Andrews said there are things everyone can do to make these problems more infrequent.

“One easy way to avoid nuisance pest problems would be keeping trash and clutter to a minimum,” he said. “Another thing would be not to prop doors open.”

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In some spots the brick-colored finish can already be seen, which will be the dominant color on the building’s exterior once it is completed.

Windows, roofing, drywall finishing, the exterior terra cotta layer, the sidewalks and parking lots are the areas that still need the most work, the report stated.

Completion of the building was initially scheduled for February 2009, but has been pushed back to March 2009.

“(Construction) is a little bit behind due to weather,” said Steve Lawrence, associate vice president of Facilities Management. “But it’s on budget.”

The project is expected to cost a total of $50 million, $37.5 million of which is from state appropriations. The remainder comes from the university’s budget.

This figure places the Education Building as one of the most expensive buildings on campus. It is second only to the renovations of the Charles V. Park Library, which cost more than $50.5 million in 2002.

DSA Architects, a branch of the SHW Group from Berkley, and Walsh Construction are the two companies working on the project.

Dan Sish, Walsh Construction assistant project manager, said the building has already cost $20 to $25 million to date.

Walsh Construction has also reported no safety issues, and only one injury.

“A mason was injured, three weeks ago now. A falling piece of iron hit him,” Sish said. “We had a Walsh representative in the hospital with him. He checked out OK, no broken bones.”

Last week, wall framings were installed and the north parking lot was paved.

Current work being done to the building includes exterior painting, drywall hanging, landscaping, roofing and installing glass walls.

“I think they’re doing a really nice job,” said Kelsey Stanton, a Grosse Pointe freshman. “It’s nice to see their progress. Before, it was just dirt.”

Sish said some areas of the building have been especially challenging to complete.

“I would say the lecture hall auditorium, the methods lab and the south outdoor learning center,” he said.

Once completed, the nearly 135,000- square-foot building will include a 200-seat auditorium and four laboratories for the child development department.

By the south-facing side of the building, there will be an outdoor learning center where students will be able to interact with kindergarten-aged children, put on puppet shows and have group readings.

The building will have fully-mediated classrooms, computer labs and wireless Internet throughout the facility.

As a seat to the College of Education and Human Services, the new facility will converge the different departments that are currently spread around campus, including counseling and special education, teacher education and professional development, educational leadership, human environmental studies and recreation, parks and leisure services administration.

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Phase one, which is divided into the fall and spring semesters, entails the cultivation of 944 plants.

Most plants in the fall segment of phase one are in place.

“What they’re planting right now is the Woodland’s edge and the meadows shrub,” Lawrence said.

As part of the process, a fence was raised around the Wakelin McNeel woodlot.

Lawrence said the fence was put in place to keep people from interfering with the work being done in the area.

“They excavated a foot of soil and replaced it with a soil high in organic content,” he said.

The entire project is being constructed in stages and is funded entirely by donations. While phase one is under way, phase two will only begin if and when the resources become available.

“Some of the donations are in place. We had to raise money both for the current plants and for the future maintenance of the garden,” said Associate Dean of the College of Science of Technology Claudia Douglass.

The gardens broke ground more than a month ago and are expected to be completed by this time next year.

The Botanical Gardens will include only plants native to Michigan, and will be composed of three distinct gardens: Native Plants and Natural Communities, Plants and Society and Landscape Demonstrations. Each garden has a specific purpose.

The Native Plants and Natural Communities gardens will include the current woodlot and the pond, and will also include a new outdoor pavilion for events.

A bee, butterfly and hummingbird collection and a running stream and geology display will be some of the features of the Landscape Demonstration gardens, according to an article by the College of Science and Technology Spectrum newsletter.

North of Anspach Hall will be the Plants and Society gardens. Meant for K-12 education, this space will feature a children’s garden, where they will be able to experiment and learn about edible plants.

But the main function of the gardens is to provide a study and research site, Trustee emeritus James Fabiano Sr., said.

The Botanical Gardens will feature collections of woodland flowers, ferns, aquatic plants, wetland plants, ornamental grass, edible plants, medicinal plants and displays on the economic uses of plants and the interaction between plants and people.

Fabiano provided the concept and the driving force for the gardens.

“I would hope that it would have a very positive effect on the campus, the students, and secondly, on the greater Mount Pleasant community,” Fabiano said. “Not only is it going to be aesthetically pleasing, but we will be able to have community functions such as weddings, speeches and poetry readings.”

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The building was closed for repairs after two underground lines began to leak. Because of the repairs, the opening faculty art exhibit was postponed to the spring.

“Visual Narratives: Reading between the Lines” is the exhibit scheduled to inaugurate the art gallery this semester Oct. 11.

In mid-August, the steam and condensate lines under the art gallery began leaking. Steam and condensate lines branch out from the powerhouse and are responsible for a building’s heating.

“We dug it up and the condensate and steam lines were made of copper, which is quite unusual,” said Associate Vice President of Facilities Management Steve Lawrence. “Typically, our condensate lines are made of steel.”

Lawrence said the steam line takes the heated steam from the power house, and the condensate line takes the steam back to the power house to get reheated.

He said some of the steam lines in the oldest parts of campus could be 80 to 90 years old.

Central Michigan Life reported in August the art gallery would require floor replacement, covering and painting.

“Painting is done,” Lawrence said. “Some touch-ups will be done after the first exhibit.”

The building that currently houses the art gallery will be 50 years old in 2009, placing it 14 years above the average age of buildings on campus.

In the last three years alone, the gallery required $95,600 in repairs.

The amount includes repairs to structural beams, installation of ceiling fans, lights, ductwork, drywall repair and extensive painting.

The Board of Trustees unveiled the plan last year signing on the SHW Group with architectural consultants.

“We will be sharing the schematic design ideas in late September,” said Associate Vice President of Facilities Management Steve Lawrence in an e-mail to Central Michigan Life. “The biggest changes shown in the schematic plans include a coffee shop, more meeting space on the lower and first levels, post office and more casual lounge space for students on the lower and first levels.”

In April 2007 the Board of Trustees approved renovations to the building under a $5 million budget. In April 2008, Central Michigan Life reported the projected costs fluctuated to a maximum of $10.9 million. However, the Trustees stuck by their initial budget of $5 million after the estimate was released.

“The project is to be funded from multiple sources, reserves for future construction, gifts and grants, campus improvement fee and university reserves,” Lawrence said.

The architectural firm SHW Group collected input from students and faculty through surveys and discussions to shape its designs for the building. Surveys revealed that the UC was one of the less popular buildings on campus.

“We don’t have a place where we can hang out,” said Hudsonville junior Austin Rowlader. “I think it’s a good idea to have a place where students can congregate.”

With the intention of making the UC more appealing to students, structural changes include more open space for meeting and seating, a coffee shop and a post office.

“A post office is an excellent idea,” Rowlader said. “The closest post office is at the (Student Book Exchange).”

The renovations are part of a larger chain of projects starting with the completion of the Education and Human Services Building. Once completed, the building will house education services that are currently in Ronan Hall, Lawrence said.

Less-used services from the UC will move to the renovated Ronan Hall, creating room for the scheduled renovations.

“The project is still in the early stages of design, and plans for relocation have not yet been finalized,” said Director of Plant Engineering and Planning Linda Slater.

The UC renovations are scheduled to begin in January 2010 and end in December 2010, with most of the work being done during the summer.

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