<p>Hi RPC,</p>
<p>Im glad to hear that you and your son were impressed by the campus. The university has spent over a half a billion dollars on campus improvements over the last few years. Now to address your questions:</p>
<ol>
<li> The CAS Building (Lake, Meserve, and Holmes)
The facility is in fact an old factory building. It is quite a maze and is not in the best of shape (esp. compared to the new buildings on campus). However, the building is only used for administrative purposes. Your son will not be having any classes there. CAS students basically make use of two facilities: </li>
</ol>
<p>(1) Shillman Hall. This is a state of the art classroom building that was built a few years ago. This is what Shillman looks like:</p>
<p><a href=“http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3DShillman%2BHall%26sm%3DYahoo%2521%2BSearch%26fr%3DFP-tab-img-t%26toggle%3D1%26cop%3D%26ei%3DUTF-8&w=173&h=125&imgurl=www.campusmap.neu.edu%2FMap_photo_tour%2Fshillman.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.campusmap.neu.edu%2Fmap_buildings%2Fshillman.html&size=40.4kB&name=shillman.jpg&p=Shillman+Hall&type=jpeg&no=1&tt=9&ei=UTF-8[/url]”>http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3DShillman%2BHall%26sm%3DYahoo%2521%2BSearch%26fr%3DFP-tab-img-t%26toggle%3D1%26cop%3D%26ei%3DUTF-8&w=173&h=125&imgurl=www.campusmap.neu.edu%2FMap_photo_tour%2Fshillman.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.campusmap.neu.edu%2Fmap_buildings%2Fshillman.html&size=40.4kB&name=shillman.jpg&p=Shillman+Hall&type=jpeg&no=1&tt=9&ei=UTF-8</a></p>
<p>(2) Ryder Hall. This building was substantially renovated a few years ago and basically looks new on the inside. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.campusmap.neu.edu/Map_photo_tour/ryder.jpg[/url]”>http://www.campusmap.neu.edu/Map_photo_tour/ryder.jpg</a></p>
<p>There are also some new classrooms in the West Village buildings which CAS also uses.
In short, you son will take his courses in some really nice classrooms. Just about all of them have comfortable tiered seating with the latest technology. </p>
<p>As for Computer Labs, there are several across campus, including the huge computer lab on the first floor of the Snell Library. All the labs have state of the art equipment. There are also a number of Cyber Cafes around campus that your son can use and most of the campus has wireless internet access. I doubt that anyone uses the computers that you saw in Lake Hall. They are probably just being stored there until the university can discard them. By the way, all the faculty get new computers every three years, so it is doubtful that even the faculty would use them.</p>
<p>FYI, there will be a new campus master plan released later this year which is expected to add an additional 2 million square feet in building space to the campus (new dorms, academic and research facilities).</p>
<ol>
<li> Girls Wearing Bikinis on Campus</li>
</ol>
<p>Since these students were on campus in the morning, it is highly doubtful that they were co-op students. Students who are on co-op would be working downtown during the day at one of the various companies in the program (Fidelity, John Hancock, etc.). The three girls that you saw probably did not have any classes that morning. However, most students who enjoy sunbathing go to the park along the Charles River or to Back Bay Fens which is huge grassy park near campus (usually there is usually a text book in their hand). But dont worry; Northeastern is a very serious academic institution.</p>