Rotaru ’22: Dean of the College’s Office

Alex Rotaru ’22–This past summer, I have been working as an Administrative Support Assistant for the Dean of the College’s Office. My main focus was to measure classroom capacities under social distancing conditions, as well as to create seating charts for said classrooms, to ensure that the college can do contact tracing, should the college happen to have a COVID-19 case.Many people who have asked me about how I do measurements thought I was creating squares of side 6 feet, which was not the case. I chose to create equilateral triangles of side 6 feet, meaning that every other row would be staggered by 3 feet, and that each row would be 5 feet 3 inches apart. All those results came from planar geometry; the height of an equilateral triangle bisects the base into two equal segments -hence the 3 feet of staggering; the 5 feet 3 inches stems from the Pythagorean theorem applied to the triangle formed by a triangle height, half of its corresponding base, and one of the remaining sides -5 feet 3 inches is the height length for an equilateral triangle of side 6 feet, hence why the rows are that distance apart.What I have described is the ideal case, where I can move around tables and chairs; for that case, I have a formula prepared. However, there are many classrooms where nothing like that could happen, but I still used triangles instead of squares to minimize space loss.However, classrooms under social distancing conditions have lost plenty of capacity. Only the Detchon Center has classrooms that lost less than half their original capacity. Most mid-sized classrooms, seminar rooms, and lounges that are still usable lost anywhere between 50% and 66% capacity. Salter Hall and Ball Theater both lost at least 75% of their capacity. Finally, Pioneer Chapel has a capacity under social distancing guidelines of just 100, under the best circumstances: 44 on the benches on the first floor, 44 on the benches on the second floor, 2 on the elevated platform on the second floor, and 10 on chairs set up on the second floor.Actually seeing the limited capacity the college will be operating under social distancing conditions cannot be described in words or in capacity spreadsheets. I don’t think anyone will be able to imagine just how much the college will have to adjust in order for us to have classes safely.

Fortunately, we have some powerful school spirit, and I have faith that, if we tap into it and use it right, we will prevail at the end of this crisis, because Wabash Always Fights.