Hello CLTV News readers. This is Marcus Leshock - host of the "metromix" entertainment show here on CLTV. I attended NIU from the fall of '99 until the winter of '05, earning both a B.A. and M.A. in Communication.
As a communication major at NIU, I spent a lot of time in Cole Hall. Everything from Math courses, to Geology lectures, to my very first NIU class - COMS 356 - a lecture on the history of film taught by Dr. Jeffrey Chown. Cole Hall was once looked at as an old, stale lecture hall. Yesterday it became a building of worldwide significance. I've been reading a lot of media reports about the building that seem to differ from my memory. Here's a description of the Cole Hall that I remember.
It's a big building which is most often entered from the rear. You're looking at the rear section in the photo above. Once inside students have the option to enter two seperate, large lecture halls, each with roughly 200 seats. Each set of lecture hall doors lead to an aisle that goes directly down to the stage, creating three seating sections in each lecture hall. This is where other news outlets are getting it wrong with their 3D animations. There is no long center aisle, rather two side aisles leaving a large chunk of seating in the center and two smaller sections of seating on the sides.
The chairs are older and a mustard yellow color - bucket seats made of plastic material. Each chair has a small flip-up desk for writing notes. When sitting in the chairs you face the stage where professors or graduate assistants lecture students. Courses taught in Cole Hall include mathematics, sciences, communication, and more. Backstage there is another door - the door 27 year-old Stephen Kazmierczak burst through to come on stage.
By entering from backstage, Kazmierczak appeared in full view of the class. This also gave students the ability to run up the exit aisles and disperse through the rear of the building. Had Kazmierczak entered through the rear doors he would have encountered students facing a different direction, forcing them to rush towards the stage. Given that many students are probably unaware of the exit door behind the stage, this could have led to even more hysteria and carnage.
Outside in the center lobby of Cole Hall there is a large corridor that was recently remodeled to include an elevator. Near the front of the hall there is a door that leads to a small screening room that seats 20 people or so.
While earning my M.A. in Communication from NIU I worked as a graduate assistant, teaching a lab section of a field production course. I spent a lot of time with my students in the basement of Cole Hall - home to the COMS department's photojournalism lab. This is where students would check out still photography cameras, learn how to use them, or utilize their dark rooms to develop film. I cannot imagine the feelings of confusion going on in the Cole Hall basement as this incident was occuring.
More thoughts to come....
