An increasing number of undergraduate students are now traveling down College Hill to attend classes and conduct research in the public health building at 121 South Main St. Some are even making the one-and-a-half mile trek to the Laboratories for Molecular Medicine at 70 Ship St. But despite the distance, most students say they don't mind the hike.
According to the Office of the Registrar, 415 students currently attend classes at 121 South Main St., including 96 undergraduates. There were 17 undergraduates doing research at labs at the Ship Street building last semester, according to Joan Fullerton, the office coordinator in the Bio Med medical education department.
Though there are no undergraduate-specific classes offered at 121 South Main St., many undergraduates are enrolling in graduate courses there, said Fox Wetle, associate dean of medicine for public health and public policy and professor of community health.
"(It) was never intended to be an undergraduate facility," she said, noting that the building hosts mostly graduate classes for the public health program.
Wetle teaches BC 244, Sec. 1: "Qualitative Methods in Health Research" at 121 South Main St. She said, though the facility is off campus, it is still conveniently located for students. Anyone who may think otherwise faces a "psychological barrier as opposed to a physical one," she said.
Helen Lamphere '08 is enrolled in BC 244 and said she would prefer taking classes on campus but does not mind going to off-campus buildings.
"I think we're spoiled compared to other college campuses in terms of how easy and fast it is to get from class to class," she said.
Lamphere said it takes her about 15 to 20 minutes to walk to 121 South Main St.
Kim Gans, associate professor of community health, said she likes the South Main Street facility because it "puts all the public health people together who were earlier spread all over." She said it is a necessary step on the way to establishing a School of Public Health, which would be "a boon to Brown" and is slated to be established by 2010.
"Brown's campus is expanding anyway, and there's no place for the public health department on the main campus," Gans said.
Gans said commuting to and from the building on South Main Street might be "somewhat of a hassle" for students, but she said "the pros outweigh the cons."
Tamara Del Rosso '08 and Jana Loeb '08, both of whom are taking BC 168, Sec. 12: "Tobacco, Smoking and Evil Empire," said they do not mind walking down College Hill to South Main Street.
Del Rosso, who has a class on Pembroke campus just before BC 168, said her professor doesn't mind if she is a few minutes late to class.
The labs at 70 Ship St. also attract a significant number of undergraduate students who work as research assistants or conduct independent research there.
Wolfgang Peti, assistant professor of medical science, has four undergraduates currently working in his lab at the Ship Street facility. Peti said the building allows undergraduate researchers the chance to "focus more" and "not get as distracted" as they would on the main campus.
Students working in labs at 70 Ship St. have a variety of ways to commute, including walking, biking or taking the free safeRIDE BrownMed/Downcity Express shuttle.
Peti said the fact that safeRIDE does not run during academic breaks, such as during the summer when some students work in his lab, raises "a bit of a security concern." But he added that most undergraduates are able to get rides from graduate or post-graduate students, which makes the lab environment "more collegial."
Rene Kessler '07.5, who worked in the Peti lab during the summer and fall of 2006, said he liked "getting off College Hill every day." Kessler said it took him only 10 minutes to bike there, compared to 15 minutes if she took the shuttle, including time spent waiting for it to show up.
Some students find taking the shuttle more trouble than it is worth. "Sometimes the shuttles get off schedule and become a little inconvenient," wrote Ojus Doshi '08 in an e-mail to The Herald. Since November 2005, Doshi has worked in Assistant Professor of Biology Rebecca Page's lab, he wrote.
"The trip back to campus is pretty tiresome by the time you walk back up the hill, but it's probably good exercise. A bike makes the trip much faster, but I've only gotten halfway up the hill on the return trip before I needed to walk the bike up to the top," he added.
