Date posted: 4-1-02

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Foreign language labs squeeze NIU students' schedules
Class requirements, combined with a limited number of lab hours, make foreign language classes an even bigger challenge on campus.

By Tony Ciampa
DeKalb News Service

DeKALB -- As eight students sit at tables in the foreign language lab waiting to use the next available computers, time dwindles before lab closes at 5 p.m. on this Monday.

Students in NIU's foreign languages department are feeling the stresses of mandatory class hours in the computer lab and not enough available hours there. Students in most lower-level foreign language classes -- 101, 102, 201 and 202 -- are supposed to complete two hours a week in the lab.

"I have attended zero hours of the lab this semester," said John Low, a junior majoring in economy. " I work two jobs and take 15 credit hours. If they were open until 7 p.m. on any extra days it would help. I really wish they were open on the weekends longer."

The lab is opens from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays. On weekends, it's open from 6 to 9 p.m. on Sundays. This leaves students without options because of conflicting schedules or overcrowding on days when they can come.

Foreign language chairman Raymond Tourville said that in an average week, the lab is used by 1,800 to 2,100 students and has 50 or so available computers.

Simple math makes it hard to explain how all students can possibly get in their hours with the amount of students in lower-level classes. There are 46 lower-level Spanish classes that are supposed have a two-hour requirement of lab work. If each class holds the maximum 25 students, that would make 1,150 students who need 2,300 hours a week. The lab now is open 50 hours a week. That equals 2,500 hours of available time (50 computers x 50 hours) for 2,300 hours of time needed to complete work.

And that's only for Spanish students. Lower-level German, French and other foreign-language classes also have lab requirements.

Information Tech coordinator Grant Olsen said the main reason the lab is not opened more on the weekends is people do not show up.

"It is not brisk on the weekends and we do not think it is worth staffing on the weekend," he said.

Tourville added: "We have had no requests to have it open longer. We've responded to what students want and have never had request from students for Saturdays. We would look into it, but we are not going to leave it open for two or three students."

Low told a different story about Sunday nights at the lab.

"The lab is so crowded on Sunday nights that it is hard to get a computer," he said.

Sociology major Anita Zgoda thinks the hours need to be extended to weekends and that since many other campuses have computer labs open 24 hours a day, NIU should have no problem.

Among the schools having 24-hour campus lab hours are University of Illinois-Urbana and Eastern Illinois University. But, this does not assure that all of those labs offer the special software and equipment needed in foreign-language labs. The software also registers students' time on the lab computers.

NIU commuter students who work by day and take classes at night are trapped without enough time to get hours in at the lab. Also, NIU's satellite campuses in Hoffman Estates, Rockford and Naperville don't accommodate foreign language software. This forces one lab to accommodate the needs of the entire university.

While lab attendants said the lab is not full at night, they did say the busiest times are noon to 2 p.m.

"I personally think that the lab is too crowded and it doesn't help me," said Veronica Garcia, criminology major. "If anything, I think they should be open on the weekends."

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Source list:
· (Raymond Tourville, Chair of Foreign Languages, 753-1259)
· (Grant Olsen, Info Tech Coordinator)
· (Veronica Garcia, NIU Student)
· (John Low, NIU Student)
· (Anita Zgoda, NIU Student)