By Anna Milanez
Editor-in-Chief

Anna Milanez

Assistant Arts & Living Editor

Elysa Weiss, the head of core computing at Bryn Mawr, knows how much time Mawrters spend in Guild. She sees them rush in between classes to check their email, sees their eyes turn red from being in front of the computer for too long, and she suspects that they remain in the lab long after she goes home at 5pm. Some students spend more time in Guild than they do anywhere else on campus. And they hate it. For many, Guild represents the a cappella concert that they had to miss because they were writing a paper, or the disk, with the only copy of their thesis on it, that decided to fail. Guild is associated with the hard work of being a student as well as with the frustration caused by computers.

Aware of all this, Weiss wants to make Guild a more comfortable place to be—to remove the edge that comes with being in a computer lab. In collaboration with Bryn Mawr’s art department, she is in the midst of developing a project that will allow students to brighten the walls of Guild by painting murals. Weiss forsees a technological theme to what students will paint and suggests that they may work together to create a technological timeline, perhaps beginning with early inventions such as farming tools and progressing to recent developments in a field such as robotics. The first murals will be painted on the wall that runs the length of the computer bay and then students can move on to paint in the stairwells. Weiss says that she hopes to cover most of the wall space so that the atmosphere will be more vibrant.

Those that are interested will be required to submit a sketch of what they intend to paint. Sketches will be reveiwed by a small panel of faculty and students to ensure that the subjects are appropriate. Elizabeth Gross, a faculty member from the art department, will work closely with students, offering general advice as well as consulting students as to the size of the murals. Guild will supply the materials and students will be welcome to paint whenever Guild is open, working on their murals whenever they have time.

Weiss stresses the fact that she is open to suggestions, as the project is still evolving. Though the students should make an effort to stay within the theme of technology, she invites students to submit sketches that involve other themes as well. This project will be ongoing— once all the wall space has been filled, the murals will be replaced by new ones, while the old ones are digitized and perhaps posted on the computing center website.

Weiss hopes that the murals will lead students to think of Guild in a new and improved way. Though students will still agaonize over their work and computer troubles, the murals will give them a reason to lift their heads.

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