WKU News

Nearly 50 locations on WKU’s campus have been identified as “Zoom rooms.”

This became necessary because so much content is being consumed virtually this semester, as WKU’s Amy Bingham explains in this week’s View from the Hill.

WKU’s campus is blanketed with Wi-Fi. Parking lots came in clutch last semester when WKU closed and switched to virtual instruction. But with students back on campus, careful planning has gone into making sure there’s plenty of space to Zoom.

“It’s super quiet in there and everybody knows it’s designated a Zoom.”

Freshman Emily Porter is taking advantage of one of 49 spaces on campus identified as a Zoom room.

“It was OK, like I’d rather be in person but the teacher made it so it felt like we were in person, so it was good.”

With so many hybrid classes being offered, Associate Provost Rob Hale says they realized spaces like this would be essential.

“We knew that there would be some students who were gonna be in a face to face class or part of a hybrid face to face class and they would immediately need to go to Zoom and particularly commuters wouldn’t have time to get home to be able to do that.”

Freshman Melody Dant found a Zoom room in Cherry Hall so it would feel more like class.

“I wanted to get in to like a little classroom where it feels like I’m learning but it still feels like I’m in a class environment.”

Nearly all of WKU’s academic buildings, including Cravens Library, offer space for Zoom classes.

“We got the folks in Institutional Research to kind of help us figure out a way to see what the number would be per building.”

Hale says they plan to evaluate over the next week to see if more or less Zoom space is needed.  Meanwhile the students are just thankful to be back on campus.

“I think our school is doing a really good job of the safety so we are all doing really well on following the rules, we all want to stay here.”

“It’s my first year and I didn’t get to finish my senior year, I had to finish it on line, and I don’t really want to have to start freshman year all online, just want to be on campus as long as I can.”

To find a list for all the Zoom rooms available on campus, visit https://www.wku.edu/healthyonthehill