Students in the School of Music have spent years watching other buildings on campus get shiny new upgrades while their facilities are falling apart. This year, they’ve had enough.
The School of Music was welcomed into its current building back in 1996. In the 28 years they’ve called the Standard Building, the Haas-Howell Building, and the Rialto Theater home renovations to the building’s facilities have been little to none according to students.
Students within the School of Music have seen the condition of their buildings worsening for a while. Reports of closed-down bathrooms, shattered windows, and broken ADA door buttons have all come in and fallen on deaf ears for years, shared students. Recently, the buildings have received a bit more attention from school administrators in getting repairs, getting new acoustic panels and weather stripping for their doors. But certain issues have still gone unresolved and for the more than 500 students in the school, there is still a long way to go.
“Some of these buildings are almost 100 years old,” said SGA Executive Vice President Sarah Forberger during a walkthrough of some of the building’s problem areas. “It’s absolutely ridiculous the state they are in”.
Walking through the halls of The Haas-Howel and Standard Building, it’s clear that the School of Music’s facilities are showing their age. Students have said that they’ve experienced issues with some of the building’s offices not having air-conditioning, out-of-tune pianos in practice rooms, and water fountains not working.
“One of my biggest issues is with the water fountains” shared Naj Hughes, a student within the school. “There are two for the entire building”.
Concerns about safety have also been raised surrounding the buildings. Students have brought in complaints about the doors’ PantherCard access. Specifically, how some automatic doors stay unlocked for longer than necessary once they’re opened. In addition, Georgia State University’s newly unveiled Blue Line excludes both The Haas-Howel and Standard Building. Compared to other buildings on campus, the areas around them aren’t as well-lit either.
Forberger has begun work with the School of Music’s administration to solve the building’s worsening issues. Currently, the School of Music is under the leadership of an Interim Director and just this school year appointed a new Dean. They shared with Forberger that out of the school’s $4 million budget, 90% of it goes to funding its salary.
The school did share with Forberger that it plans on fixing some of these problems. The school was given a sustainability grant from the University to put more water fountains in their lecture halls. They also plan on using a $50,000 grant gained from student fees to renovate areas like The Standard Building’s student lounge.
Having the money to make these changes is only one part of a solution, however. The School of Music’s administration also shared with Forberger that they’ve also been facing issues with the University’s maintenance team to physically fix issues with the building’s bathroom and lounge spaces.
These delays in making changes have been felt by students.
“There are always projects and proposals in the works but getting them executed seems to take too long,” said Hughes. “I hope moving forward, they can communicate more effectively between departments to actually get things done”.
SGA and the School of Music haven’t announced specifics on their plans to improve the school’s condition but an initiative to solve some of the problems has been started by Forberger and SGA.
