Spring is coming, and it’s time for professors to decide whether to take their classes outside.

Brenda Daly, professor of English, said while she enjoys spring, she is too “goal-oriented” to hold class outdoors.

“My room has gone from ice cold to practically a steam bath, and I’ve never [taken my class] outside,” she said.

Daly said there are too many distractions outside the classroom.

Robert Harvey, professor of landscape architecture, has taken previous classes outside.

“[In] a lot of them, a lot of the classwork would be outside,” he said, adding that the classes would travel to different sites.

He said several factors determine whether he holds classes outdoors.

“It depends on what kind of class it is,” Harvey said. “Some classes lend themselves to being outside better than others. It also depends on the weather.”

He said sometimes taking a class outdoors might not work out very well, but “if it’s a quiet place and everybody can hear, it’s fine.”

Linda Hagge, instructor of English, said she has held class outdoors “but not usually just for fun.”

“Usually it’s for a reason, like the air conditioner’s broken or the lights are out,” she said.

She said the outdoors make teaching difficult in several ways.

“It’s hard for the people in the back, who are sitting in the back row, to hear,” Hagge said. “And the people walking by, and the squirrels and stuff, are a big distraction.”

Loring Silet, professor of English, said he is unable to take classes outdoors since he teaches film courses. If he did not need indoor facilities for his classes, Silet said he occasionally might take a class outside.

“It’s difficult for students to interact with each other [outside],” he said.

However, he said there are positives to holding classes outdoors.

“It’s a fun experience for the students, but I’m not sure it actually works in terms of teaching them,” he said.

Abraham Epstein, professor of plant pathology, has taken classes outside in the past.

“I used to teach a course in field pathology that a great big part of it was outdoors,” he said.

He said he never holds class outside because of nice weather.

“I get enough field work in the course of a year that I don’t particularly want to take my classes outdoors just because it’s nice,” he said.

Epstein said it has not been more difficult to teach classes outdoors.

“But most of my work has been with fairly small classes,” he said.

Kris Fresonke, assistant professor of English, said she sometimes allows classes to go outdoors.

“When [my fall class] had projects to work on by [themselves] I said it was okay to go outside, but it’s hard to hold a whole class outside,” she said.

She said some rooms she has taught in are somewhat unpleasant in the spring time.

“The classrooms on the first floor of Ross Hall have no windows and they’re very dreary,” Fresonke said.