Walking the halls, Clegg stops in undersized labs and research rooms, describing how his department has tried to squeeze high-tech research into outmoded quarters. The floor of one laboratory had to be cut away to provide headroom for a two-story cryostat. The entire apparatus had to be enclosed inside a new electrically shielded room so that sensitive measurements would not be disturbed each time someone pushed an elevator button nearby. And Phillips Hall s problems aren t just with research. The library can t hold all its books because the floor in the main room isn t strong enough to support additional stacks.
Classrooms are archaic and cramped.
When UNC s former chancellor Michael Hooker first toured Phillips and entered the lecture hall, he was amazed to discover that it was virtually unchanged from the time when he had taken physics there. With funds from the university, the hall has since been updated with new seats and writing surfaces, and a screen for presentations. It s wonderful, Clegg says. We could do this to a lot of other classrooms on campus if we just had the money. In Phillips Hall, physics and astronomy shares space with the Curriculum in Applied and Materials Sciences, a relatively new program with strong appeal to students and researchers alike.