ULab Grand Opening 

Almost a decade after announcing plans to develop a new building, students have been welcomed into the ULab. The first big change to campus since the development of the Commons Cafe has brought excitement for the future of UPrep. With a new building, however, comes a volley of challenges and opportunities, all with their own nuances.

The Controversy With The Building

Students and faculty file into the ULab for their first classes of second semester. As the clock reads 8:25, they take their seats and begin their morning. Weeks pass, the semester continues and they enjoy the functional and not-so-functional parts of the new building.
“We keep talking about it in our Spanish class because there’s constant whistling,” junior Mojo Woodman said. “I think that it was built as more of a pretty building than a practical one.”
Woodman isn’t the only one feeling as though the building’s aesthetics were more of a priority in comparison to functionality. The Colabs for example, which are the ULab’s scaled-down meeting rooms, were missing a wall piece that made the rooms private.
The piece was installed during mid-winter break according to Robert Thom, director of facilities but still caused talk among students such as senior Evan Harford for the first three and a half weeks it was missing.
“If someone else is in the room next door, you can easily hear them, which defeats the point of the Colabs,” Harford said before the piece was implemented.
The school was aware of the missing space in the Colabs, and ordered a piece that would divide the rooms in two, but it did not arrive in time for student access.
“We knew that going in,” Susan Lansverk, assistant head of school for finance and operations said. “There’s a mullion that goes between the window and the wall. Then [the piece] makes it a separate room.”
Assistant Head of School for Academics, Ed Billingslea agrees that the building is finished but is aware that it still needs some last-minute improvements.
“Everything’s working and now it’s just fine-tuning,” Billingslea said.
Despite the ULab being open for business, the school’s administration is still willing to hear about anything that may need some improvement.
“The goal would be that if there’s things that are broken or something that seems not normal, I would love to hear that,” Lansverk said. “Sometimes people talk about things and then don’t tell people.”
While there are some critiques of the building, there are also students who enjoy the new study spaces and opportunities the campus expansion provides.
“It’s definitely more chill because there’s fewer people over there. This makes it a really nice study space, as it’s easier to focus,” sophomore Marina Marcuse said. “It’s really cool to be able to do more hands-on activities that otherwise would have been interrupted in other buildings.”
While student opinions vary, Billingslea is excited about the possibilities the ULab offers.“I think it provides a space that more closely resembles a college campus,” Billingslea said. “So as we are prepping students curricularly, we also have a space that you can eventually matriculate to for studying.”
Other faculty believe that the additional space comes in handy when students need to study.
“We have a cool classroom, and then I let [students] all work. [They] scatter, and find a comfortable place, whether it’s a private room to study or the couches. It’s kind of a college setting in that regard. Having a new space is fun, it’s cool,” PE teacher Nathan Whitney said. “I really like the light. The fact that we have constant light regardless of where you are. I like that a lot.”
Members of the community including Director of Information Technology Amy Spivey, are interested in where this expansion will lead UPrep and its students.

“It’s a great new place for us to explore and see how we can use it; how you guys can use it,” Spivey said. “I think one of the best parts about it is the open design so that things can change as we change.”