Day 7 (University of Houston - Main Campus)

We started off our day at the University of Houston (main campus) School of Art where we were introduced to Mr. Hanna who showed us around most of the building that housed the design studios. Classes at UH had begun this past Monday and everyone seemed to have settled back in to classes, the first class we got to see was an intermediate class that included undergraduates working on paintings. Students who took that class went there for 3 hours, twice a week. After we took a small walk around the classroom looking at the students work, we went to the senior painting studio where each student had their whole own room to work in with their paintings either in or outside the space they had.

Senior Studio Paintings

Senior Studio Painting

The rest of the classes and work going on in the rest of the building had more to do with computer design. We were told that some students from the graphic designing group weren't just working on their art for the assignments they received in class, they were also designing things for big companies, mainly oil companies. After spending some time at the graphic design classroom, we went to Wortham Theater where we talked about what it was used for and the art that was inside of it.

Roof of the Wortham Theater Entrance

UH Public Art made by Carlos Cruz-Diez

One thing that surprised almost everyone was the student center which we went to after the Wortham Theater. From the outside it had already looked like a big building but once you got inside you were able to see that there was a whole underground floor with a bowling alley for students along with other activity spaces. We got a tour from someone who had just completed his first semester at UH. He showed us around both of the student center buildings which featured spaces for clubs, organizations, and the office for Greek life at UH.

Student Center

After leaving the student center, we ate lunch and made our way to Cougar Place (UH dorms) with another tour guide who showed us what they were offered in each building: kitchens, work spaces, small fitness rooms. Although we didn't actually get to go and see one of the dorms like we did at Rice University, we were told that the layout was similar to the dorms at Rice. 

To end our day at UH we went to an admissions presentation were they explained requirements to get admitted into UH as well as all the classes they offered. One important thing they mentioned regarding the future of UH is the new medical school that will be opening in 2020.

For the most part, I think getting to experience what we were able to today surprised us, especially me. Despite living so close to the campus for more than 10 years, I never realized how big UH is with the 40,000+ students it has as well as the actual size of the campus. The student center is what I would guess surprised most people, it was able to show that UH actually did care about what students did outside of class. In short, throughout our day at UH we actually got to see what some of the classes looked like and how students functioned both in and out of class.