After nearly 16 years of use, the chairs in all of the Daniels College of Business classrooms will be replaced.
“The Haworth chairs in the Daniels classrooms are original to the building (August, 1999), which means they are now almost 16 years old,” said Christine MacMillan, Assistant Dean for College Operations at the Daniels College of Business. “The chairs have performed remarkably well, given their constant use and wear and tear, and have lasted beyond their expected lifespan. Unfortunately, this chair model is no longer made and we can’t get the replacement parts anymore.”
The decision to get new chairs for Daniels has been planned for a few years, according to MacMillan.
“The funding source is our ‘savings’ account, which comes from either higher than anticipated revenues or cost savings,” said MacMillan.
The quest for a new chair was fairly easy, and involved Daniels staff and students.
“We went through a competitive bidding process for classroom chairs in the Margery Reed Hall renovation. It is beneficial to limit the number of different types of chairs so we decided to use two types of chairs from that project,” said MacMillan. “Mark Williams, the Daniels Facilities Manager, put a sample of each chair in the Marcus Commons and invited student feedback on each. The results favored the Hon Ignition chair, which is also in the Marisco/Reiman Investment Center.”
Due to sight line issues—how well the front of the room can be seen in classrooms—MacMillan said they will probably get the midrise back model over the high back model.
“We will be making a decision in the near future,” said MacMillan. “We will then need to go through the University procurement process, which will take a few weeks. There will then be a period of time for the distributor to get the chairs from the manufacturer.”
Due to the multiple steps to get the new chairs, Daniels aims to install the new chairs over the summer.
According to MacMillan, the current chairs that are in the best condition will be donated to the Joy Burns building, with the remaining being donated to nonprofits.
