Don't plan on taking any classes in Mitchell Hall this spring.
The building will close for renovations in January and won't reopen until the end of the fall 2009 semester.
Melissa Vargas, strategic planner for the Provost's Office, said millions of University dollars will be spent on modernizing Mitchell Hall for students and faculty.
"This particular funding came from one of the president's initiatives to upgrade learning environments on campus," she said. "In 2007 there was a UNM institutional bond passed, and in that bond there was $12.5 million that would be dedicated to classroom modernizations - $9.5 million is going to deal with Mitchell Hall. It will be a 21st-century classroom building."
Senior Stephen Pina said Mitchell Hall needs to be renovated but that he's not sure how UNM will cope without the building next year.
"In my opinion, it's the worst building on campus, and it appears to be most used," he said. "I don't know how it's going to work with moving classes to other buildings, because that can kind of pack other buildings."
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Vargas said more than 500 classes are taught at Mitchell Hall each semester. In order to keep the courses open next year, UNM will port some to other classrooms, and the scheduling of classes will change, she said.
"Classes will have to be scheduled earlier and later, and there will not be as many off-pattern classes," she said.
Jep Choate, associate registrar, said his office has been working closely with the departments in order to schedule classes in other buildings while renovations are taking place.
"We have made arrangements with several departments on campus that have classroom space in them, and we will be putting some classes in there," he said. "We have asked departments to start offering classes earlier in the day, later in the afternoon and on weekends, and therefore we would be able to fit them in the regular classroom spaces."
Choate said scheduling these classes earlier and later will be good for students and will fit into their schedules better.
"We will be offering plenty of evening patterns for students that have to work during the day," he said. "We're also encouraging departments to offer more courses on the Internet and hybrid courses."
Choate said it is too early to tell how many more classes will be available through hybrid and online instruction.
Vargas said the project will include upgrades to cooling and heating ventilation systems, windows, bathrooms and technology. She said there are also plans to have a lounge for students and staff like the one in Dane Smith Hall.
Gary Smith, representative of the Office of Support for Effective Teaching, said input from students and faculty were incorporated into the plans for Mitchell Hall.
"We did a survey of the faculty to find out what sorts of things they would like to see done differently in Mitchell Hall when it was renovated, in terms of what kind of furniture they wanted in the room to what kind of technology," he said. "During the design open house, architects collected information from student and faculty groups."
Smith said students gave a lot of ideas about the lounge area.
"What was particularly important from the students' standpoint was input on making sure that there was space that wasn't walled-in but where students could work and have access to computers," he said.
Smith said the rough plans have been made but that some details are still being worked out.
Smith said Mitchell Hall will also be getting a computer pod similar to the one in Dane Smith Hall.
For staff, there will be projectors and computers that can hook up to the Internet for classroom instruction, Smith said.
Vargas said the remaining $3 million of funding from the 2007 bond will go to other classrooms on campus.
"We have classrooms in Dane Smith that need some technology, and we have classrooms in Ortega and many other buildings on campus that we are going to be painting and putting in carpet and technology," she said. "The primary project is Mitchell Hall, but we are going to be touching all classrooms with this funding and improving the learning environment."
