Over the summer break, a group of professors and staff gathered to repaint the hallways on the second floor of the Polytechnic United Methodist Church. They volunteered their own time to paint a base white color and blue stripe with a “W” flame emblem evenly placed down the hallway.  

Dr. Alistair Maeer, assistant professor of history, came up with the idea that was later developed and coordinated by Dr. Alison Simons, associate professor of sociology.  

“The idea was to make it more friendly, brighter and consistent,” said Dr. Maeer. “We just wanted it to be nicer for the students. Dr. Rodriguez got in on the action by not only paying for the paint but he’s also bought some TVs so we could put up informationals.” 

With the help of other professors with offices on the second floor of PUMC, Assistant Director Academic Advisor and Retention, Muhye Hammattah and Associate Dean of Freshmen Professor of Theatre Arts & Communication, Joe Brown “Pro Joe”, they were able to complete the work before school started. 

Simons said, “It was deliberately set up so that it would make things brighter and not quite so dingy, so hopefully it would kind of brighten people’s perceptions as they came in.” 

The PUMC second floor houses several classrooms, the student lounge, Rambler Media Group office and the offices of the School of Arts and Science professors as well as Dean Dr. Ricardo Rodriguez.  

“The white paint didn’t take much because I was just going over it and make sure everything was good,” said Hammattah, “but the blue stripe took me a couple of days. I had to get multiple coats of paint on there and I had to come up on the weekend a couple of times to make sure that it was good.” 

The hallway is repainted from classroom 219 to the dean’s office.