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Restricted areas on campus

Places at FGCU that students must have permission to enter

Would you enter, or would you pass by, a door with a nameplate beside it that reads Anatomical Sciences Laboratory, Wasmer, Schroeder & Company Portfolio Trading Room, High Bay, or Lactation Room? All the rooms are housed on campus at Florida Gulf Coast University, but entrance inside is limited to certain FGCU students.
The Anatomical Sciences Laboratory is located on the second floor of Marieb Hall, but getting access to the inside of it is difficult because it is “highly regulated,” said Dr. Mitchel L. Cordova, the professor and dean of the College of Health Professions and Social Work.
The laboratory is a “sensitive area,” Cordova said. Authorized people in FGCU and the Florida Anatomical Sciences Board regulate access, function, maintenance and security of the laboratory, which occupies 1,400 square feet. Through select coursework in their programs, students from exercise science, athletic training, occupational therapy, physical therapy and nurse anesthesia have access inside the laboratory.
The laboratory is used for instructional purposes using human specimens. The human cadavers come from the Florida Anatomical Sciences Board in Gainesville, Fla., only after a petition for the bodies is accepted. There is room for five specimens per year in the laboratory. Each human specimen used in the Anatomical Sciences Laboratory costs about $2,750, which includes disposal after the work on the specimens has been finished. The only students and the professor cleans the laboratory.
Cordova said he was willing to provide a picture for students who were curious to see the space.
Another room found on campus is the Wasmer, Schroeder & Company Portfolio Trading Room. The trading room is located on the first floor of the College of Business in Lutgert Hall. The room is used mainly for instructional purposes for students in the finance program. The room houses live trading activity that updates every hour. Dr. Hudson Rogers, the dean college of business, said the ”live atmosphere” of the classroom gives a real-world financial trading room experience to help students who plan to enter the investment field. He said the finance students are divided into teams with different responsibilities, and that team portfolios can reach $100,000.
Based on student research and other resources, the students later use their data to justify their investments. Students in the finance program can take advantage of the small library located inside the room for their research. Rogers said the Wasmer, Schroeder & Company Portfolio Trading Room is “ t ransformat i o n a l ” because it can motivate students to “find the story behind the prices” through research and factor the information they find into their d e c i s i o n – m a k i n g process.
The Naples investment firm Wasmer, Schroeder & Company, Inc., sponsored the $50,000 trading room, according to a 2006 press release found on the FGCU website. The third unique room found on campus is the High Bay. The interior design of the High Bay provides a multipurpose area, Laboratory Manager Mark Chew said. He added that the ceiling reaches the third floor of Holmes Hall. A crane hangs down midway of the area that can hold up to 4,000 pounds.
A cardboard boat measuring 47 feet in length can fit inside the space. The cardboard boat is one example of the things that the civil engineering students who form part of the FGCU chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) create inside the High Bay. Members of the ASCE compete in regional, national or international competitions with their projects. The High Bay also houses a machine that tests the compression of concrete up to 500,000 pounds. The students mix concrete to create “interesting things,” Chew said. The students currently are using the machine to build a concrete canoe. The students have not won the concrete canoe competition in past years.
“The floor moves like the Jurassic Park movie when the dinosaurs are coming,” Mark Chew said about the machine. The next concrete competition is scheduled on Dec. 7. The canoe measures 21 feet in length, 30 inches wide and 16 inches deep. It weighs about 200 pounds. “It’s the smallest one we’ve built yet,” said Jared Horvitz, a senior studying civil engineering.
The High Bay serves as a classroom as well.
Select students from the American Society for Civil Engineers can use the space. The Dean of the U.A. Whitaker College of Engineering and department chairs can give permission to students to enter the facility.
The Lactation Room is the fourth unique room found on campus. The Lactation Room is located on the first floor of Ben Hill Griffin Hall, and it is made possible by FGCU and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010.
The Lactation Room is only “for FGCU employees” because of its “sensitive nature,” the Vice President and Chief of Staff Susan Evans said through an email. According to Evans, as of Nov. 5, 2013, “So far, we have had one employee request access to the room.”

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