In my column on NOLA.com | Times-Picayune that appeared online Friday morning, I write about the opulence of LSU’s Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes compared to the disrepair of the school’s shabby Middleton Library.
Here are some photos from the library, which I took in mid-December 2015 and some photos from the Cox Center (some that took and others from the Center’s website). You can take a nifty virtual tour of the Cox Center at this link.
Middleton Library
Plastic sheeting covers bound copies of the Congressional Record in the basement
Plastic sheeting covers microfilm in the library’s basement
Water damage to the floor in the basement area where microfilm is stored.
This office in the library’s basement regularly floods during heavy rains. The floor has badly buckled and wood is beginning to rot.Compact stacks in the basement. The floor has rotten and has been replaced with plywood.Rotted floor in the compact stacks area in the library’s basementIn places, the floor has buckled to the point that some compact shelving cannot be used.
The ceiling in the library’s basement above the compact stacksWater-damaged copies of the Congressional RecordDamaged flooring between the compact stacks in the library basementWaste baskets used to capture leaking water in the library’s basement compact stacks area.The men’s bathroom on the library’s first floor is disgusting.Men’s bathroom on the library’s first floor
Men’s bathroom on the library’s first floor.
Second floor. One of the library’s great deficiencies is the lack of power outlets for students.The library cannot afford permanent signs on shelving in the stacks. Instead, it uses index cards to tell students where the books are
Worn furniture on the third floor. Almost every piece of furniture students use on the second, third and fourth floors is decades old and in very bad shape.
Worn furniture on the third floor. Would you like to study for finals in this chair?
Third-floor furniture has seen better days.Third floor. Carpets are stained and damaged throughout the library.Study desk on third floor, reflecting decades of defacement.Debatable, but lack of funding is slowly killing the LSU Library. Study desk on third floor
Fourth floor carpet. Lovely, huh?Fourth floor. Is this where the mouse lives?Fourth-floor carpet damage.Another lovely carpet stain on the fourth floorPeeling wallpaper on the fourth floorFourth floorFourth floor
Study area on fourth floor. The worn furniture is decades-old.Chair in lobby area of fourth floor
Meanwhile, over at the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes
