Take a virtual stroll around the more confusing areas of campus

After finding the way to the first day of school for more than a dozen years, many new… After finding the way to the first day of school for more than a dozen years, many new students might feel confident about making it to a 9 a.m. class on the first day of the semester.

If that first class lies outside of the 42-story Cathedral in the center of lower campus, however, a new student might still be wandering around unfamiliar hallways and streets at 10:30.

The Cathedral, which houses many School of Arts and Sciences departments, provides classrooms for a number of the humanities courses offered at Pitt. The rooms are numbered according to floor and progress sequentially on each floor. The front street-level entrance brings students in on the ground level, while most other entrances lead to the first floor. The basement level, home of the black box theater and a number of performance classrooms, sits beneath the ground level.

Only two Cathedral elevators stop at all floors; the rest of the elevators are divided between those that go to lower level floors and those that go to the upper levels. These elevators don’t stop at every floor, but the willingness to take the stairs up or down a floor or two, once you’ve neared your target, will save you a lot of frustration and time. Be prepared for detours on the second and third floors, as well — with workers removing asbestos, outfitting classrooms for air conditioning and improving the electrical system, some halls have been blocked off and classes relocated.

For students with a taste for theatrical performance, the Stephen Foster Memorial, on Forbes Avenue in front of the Cathedral, offers two theaters. The Charity Randall Theater, recently renovated and reopened in 2003, rests on the upper floor. Below, the Henry Heyman Theater can be accessed by sets of stairs near the entrance. Don’t be fooled — the Stephen Foster Memorial is the building that houses the two theaters. Within, each theater has its own name.

Posvar Hall, the building that houses many political science and world affairs classes, can be found across Forbes and beyond Hillman Library. The building, which lives up to its awkward, intimidating appearance, sits on the site of the Pirates’ former stadium, Forbes Field, and it’s divided into sections that hearken back to the baseball stadium’s seating sections.

Understanding the meaning of a Posvar Hall room number can be a challenge in itself. Each room is identified by a numerical floor, a letter section, and a room number. The room 4P24, for example, would identify a room on the fourth floor, in section P, numbered room 24. The section letters progress alphabetically around the building, but some sections can be difficult to locate. Don’t hesitate to ask for a little help if you can’t find the section or room you need — you won’t be the first one.

Frick Fine Arts, a frequent destination for many history of art and architecture students, is also tucked across Forbes, past the parking lot and between Posvar Hall and Carnegie Library.

If engineering has called you to Pitt, you’ll spend most of your time in Benedum Hall. Crawling with engineers and a smattering of other students at almost any hour, Benedum’s main entrance lies behind the Engineering Auditorium, off of Thackeray Street. It’s also accessible from O’Hara Street, though engineers will need no guidance to find the building, which will be their home for the next four years. Even outsiders can get around pretty easily in Benedum, though the elevators can be frustratingly slow during peak class hours.

Across O’Hara Street from Thackeray, a string of University buildings begins at the Learning Research and Development Center and runs right for several blocks. The LRDC, which is the only building in the line not connected to the others, houses many faculty, staff and researchers from the psychology department. To the right of the LRDC, students can enter Allen Hall. The astronomy and physics departments partially dwell within Allen, but beware — stray too far back, and you will leave Allen for the halls of the Old Engineering Hall. With the engineers stowed safely in Benedum, Old Engineering now houses a variety of psychology labs, including research methods.

If you go straight back through Old Engineering, you’ll end up in the Van de Graaff Building. Turn right instead, and you can wander into Thaw Hall without even knowing it. If Thaw Hall is your ultimate destination, however, you can skip the interior wandering and enter Thaw through its O’Hara Street entrance. If you continue walking through Thaw, after entering Old Engineering, you’ll end up in the Space Research Coordination Center.

The massive O’Hara complex, devoted mostly to psychology labs, physics and astronomy, can be very confusing at first, so give yourself extra time and a license to ask for directions before your first class.

Chevron Science Center, a chemistry major’s home away from home, lies beyond and behind the SRCC. To get to Chevron, simply take a short hike up Parkman Street, which is Bigelow Boulevard when it’s on the Cathedral side of O’Hara Street. Inside Chevron, the large lecture halls lie behind doors to the left, while lab space and professors offices lie to the right and on upper floors. Eberly Hall, which houses the chemistry library and a handful of classes, is hidden behind Chevron, near the stairs that lead up to Fraternity Hill.

Though the confusion of the O’Hara complex might sound intimidating, switching from physics to biology will not bring lost students any relief. The Clapp/Langley/Crawford complex that houses most of the biology labs and lecture rooms can be confusing, and, like the buildings on O’Hara Street, the three biology halls are difficult to differentiate. Clapp, in which students attend large lectures and take introductory labs, faces Fifth Avenue, between Tennyson and Ruskin avenues. Walk up Tennyson and turn into the building’s recession to gain easy entry into Langley, where more biology classrooms and the biology library are housed. Crawford, the third protruding building, is the farthest from Fifth Avenue.

Down Forbes Avenue, away from the Cathedral, many more psychology labs and professors stir within Sennott Square. The new building, completed in 2002, sits above a Panera Bread store and cannot be accessed from the front. Duck down Bouquet Street a few paces to get into the academic building. Room numbers in the thousands might not seem to make much sense, but the first digit represents the floor of a room. The rest of the digits, though, have no discernable meaning or significance. Sennott Square residents, like those in Posvar, frequently offer directions to lost students; don’t hesitate to take them up on their hospitality.

If you’re told to go to a building named Forbes, be sure to ask for better instructions. Forbes Quad refers to Posvar Hall, which was renamed a few years ago to honor the late Chancellor Wesley Posvar. Forbes Hall, far up from the Cathedral and near the intersection of Forbes Avenue and McKee Place, is a residence hall that houses primarily second- and third-year students. Forbes Pavilion surrounds Forbes Hall and includes the Health Book Center; the Department of Parking, Transportation and Services; and the residence hall itself. A block closer to the Cathedral, just a few paces down Atwood Street from Forbes Avenue, students in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences take classes in Forbes Tower.

Fortunately, Pitt’s high standards do not include a directional-skills requirement. Allow extra time for getting lost during the first few days, scout out buildings and classrooms in the days before the semester begins, and don’t be afraid to ask for directions. Keep a map of campus in your book bag or purse, even once you feel comfortable with the campus layout. And when all else fails, you can never remain hopelessly lost if you simply walk toward the beacon of the Cathedral and start out fresh from there.