Once you leave this place, you have lots of mixed feelings, that is to say the least. Haggard Hall located at Western Washington University is one of the many buildings that is used on campus for both student services, and learning. This place has lots of positives that really attribute to the success of academics on the campus, but there are definitely some negatives that should be addressed.
On the positive side, the building is quite large so it has a number of different accommodations and services within it that make it a good place to be if you are either staff or student on this campus. These include various classrooms for learning which are mostly situated on the lower floor. These classrooms are multifaceted in their purpose, and the building itself doesn’t serve one single academic background. It ranges from anything in history, science, math, etc. In contribution to this, the building has something called the Academic Technology & User Services or ATUS for short. Located on the first floor, this is where you can rent out different electronic equipment such as microphones, and other recording equipment. They also serve the mission of helping the students with internet troubles, and other troubleshooting they may run into. The second floor has the most services of any of the other floors. This is where the majority of activities take place and where the most traffic is. This floor has its own library where students can rent out books, and scan books. Also, there is both the Student Technology Center which is a lot like ATUS, in which they rent out electronics and give comprehensive troubleshooting assistance. They also in contribution to this will let you do large scale prints, and even do tutoring. Furthermore they have the Research Writing Center which is where students and faculty alike can get revising and editing done to their works by others. Lastly, there are a number of computer labs which allow for students to do projects, or just relax after a long day.
To the negative though would be the layout itself. I feel as if they really wanted to incorporate all of these wonderful things onto the campus, but instead of spreading them out among different facilities, they just threw them all into one building. The organization of the space really takes away from the experience you have, and with everything, especially on the second floor, being in such close proximity to each other, it’s hard to have a peaceful time while in this building. The main services are all bundled into one place which is fine, but if not executed properly, it deteriorates the original meaning, and I can’t help but wonder how much better it would have been if they were a bit more spread out, and thought out in design.
In conclusion, this hall does bring a number of wonderful services to everyone who goes to this campus, but since their execution is not as good as it could be, it leaves a bit of an empty feeling. Though, even though there are some negatives to me, I do think this building is a brilliant tool for people to use.
*Image taken from http://myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/dayton/HHLecture.html