The initial two-year plan to move the shop will result in an 84% reduction in floor space and the loss of specialist equipment, allowing applicants to trade for more power equipment and less time without a temporary shop.
More than 750 Dartmouth students, faculty and alumni have signed a petition to keep the Carpenter 's Shop open and accessible in the Hopkins Center. Mimi Lan Thayer, a PhD student at the School of Engineering, said the petition aims to reduce store closures, provide needed electricity and find more space for temporary housing.
The app was originally started by Fall Lane and Chris Magoon '13, Th'14, who now run the Makerspace Center for Engineering and Computer Science. Lan said he was motivated to make the request by fearing that students would not have a carpentry shop indefinitely.
Magon and Lan made the petition so that signers had two ways to show their support for the carpenter's shop: one option was to simply sign the petition to draw attention to the shop's shortcomings: the intention of working with wood and the other was to write a personal work. . A message letter or email. Hopkins Center Managers will share past experiences in the woodworking shop.
The university's original plan was to move its carpentry shop into a 960-square-foot modular trailer for a two-year renovation and reduce the number of power tools available to users. The petition calls for the university to reconsider its current plan, calling the former 6,000-square-foot facility a "campus renovation."
Through negotiations with the Hopkins administration, applicants were able to obtain more power tools and reduce the time students had to leave the shop, Lane said. He added that the promotion should be adapted to the limited space available, so as to minimize the time a store is not entered.
"Ultimately, if we're going to open the wood shop [at Hopkins Center] soon ... we're going to have to use these modular units," Lane said, adding that updating a major facility could take years. "I don't think we want a compromise. The students will lose the wood shop," he said.
Hopkins Center Director of External Affairs Michael Bodell wrote via email that the center may receive requests from candidates for special equipment, including various saws, dust collectors, plans and blowers.
"We were fortunate that many of our technical requests regarding power and dust collection were met and approved, allowing students to use the full range of power tools they could imagine," Bodell wrote.
Bodell added that the Maffei Arts Square modular trailer will be located between the Hopkins Center and the Black Family Visual Arts Center, and that the "reduced number of students served" will mean reducing the size of the facility.
Woodworking instructors and staff will move into the temporary facility in late February for a spring opening, Bodell said.
In his affidavit, Long cited several reasons to support Carpenter's. In 66 direct letters, Hopkins Center administrators are asked to maintain the wood shop and describe the shop as a place that promotes "mental wellness, education and a sense of community."
The carpentry shop is a special place of learning, engineering professor Harold Frost wrote in a letter to the Hopkins Center board.
"What really set Dartmouth apart was that Dartmouth had these stores," Frost said. "Dartmouth had an atmosphere ... less intellectually isolated and more connected to the real world."
Arthur Pettuso, a fourth-year Thayer PhD student, says Woodshop represents self-directed learning at its best. Pettuso says she feels confident working in the workshop and appreciates that teachers can use a hands-off approach that allows them to "lead" when they feel ready to step in.
"Being a full-time student is stressful," Petso said. "Woodworking is interesting and you use it instinctively, so it's always fun, therapeutic and relaxing when you're working."
