After weeks of being locked, the Doudna Fine Arts Center’s Red Zone was reopened Monday.

Jeffrey Lynch, the interim dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, and Patricia Poulter, the interim associate dean, met with a group of music students Thursday to discuss the previous damages to the Red Zone in hopes that students will act like “mature adults.”

“I’m going to give them a sense of what they’ve trashed,” Lynch said.

Damages to the Red Zone have exceeded $8,000, and the culprits remain unknown. The costs, as stated in an earlier article of The Daily Eastern News, were only for the tables, not including damage done to chairs.

“I do want to give them a larger picture than the one they’ve seemed to create for themselves,” Lynch said.

Lynch said students were entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts of the damage done to the Red Zone. Lynch specifically met with students of music organizations including Donald Fisher, a junior education major. Fisher is a member of the Eastern Illinois Panther Marching Band.

“I thought it was a very informative meeting,” Fisher said. “I can’t speak for everyone, but I know a majority of students did not know what consisted in getting the furniture, nor what it cost.”

The Red Zone furniture is from the Italian design company Living DIVIANI. It was designed with the intent to bring people together.

During the meeting, Lynch and Poulter discussed the architect’s vision for the building.

“I think that the problems could’ve been avoided, if not postponed, much farther in the future, had we known what went into getting the furniture down in the Red Zone,” Fisher said.

Lynch said he hopes that after temporarily locking the Red Zone and meeting with students, they will get the message.

“It was never intended as a romper room,” Lynch said. “It was supposed to be a room for conversation.”

Poulter said she thinks the meeting clarified the intent of the Red Zone.

“I think it was a good meeting,” Poulter said. “I really believe that essentially things are fixed.”

Originally, the Red Zone was placed in the middle of the building as a way to bring students and faculty of the theatre, art and music departments together after being separated for years across campus and Charleston.

“We wanted it right in the center, right in the concourse,” Lynch said.

Lynch said there would not be any new rules for the room upon its reopening. “I think people are excited about having it [the Red Zone] open again,” Poulter said.

Sam Bohne can be reached at 581-7942 or shbohne@eiu.edu.

Jennifer Koch, a sophomore English major and Andy Baldwin, a junior music education major, study in the Red Zone in Doudna Fine Arts Center Monday, while Jake Schlich, a freshman music education major, takes a nap.(Chelsea Grady/The Daily Eastern News)

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