After largely shutting its doors for the COVID-19 pandemic, the LSU Himes Testing Center is planning to provide computer-based testing for the upcoming fall semester with a few “exciting” changes, according to an email sent to faculty. 
The center will change its entry point, the email read, and tweak its check-in process — “to improve the flow and experience for students.” It will implement a new “student friendly” test scheduling software and support an updated version of the test creation software for faculty. 
The testing center will not be open for computer testing over the summer; it will instead use its space to provide only paper and pencil tests. 
The email said that the logistical changes were based on feedback from students and faculty. 
At some points during Fall 2019 — its last full semester under normal operations — lines for the testing center stretched across the Quad. There were 3,500 students, a significantly higher number of students than usual, scheduled to take a test on Sept. 20, 2019. The testing center can check in only about 330 students an hour, so the overflow shut it down for the day. 
In February 2020, students told The Reveille that the Himes Center creates high levels of anxiety and discomfort that negatively affect test scores. Many students said the design of the testing center fails to make them comfortable. Its fluorescent lighting, for instance, has triggered panic attacks and rapid heart rates for students who battle anxiety issues. 
“We do as much as we can to make it a comfortable environment while taking their test,” David O’Brien, director of the testing center, said. “I can’t confirm the validity of their [the students’] statements.”
Coastal environmental science student Helen Cressy experienced multiple panic attacks while testing at the Himes Center, she said in February 2020. 
“All of my experiences [at the testing center] have been bad,” Cressy said. “I’ve had two or three panic attacks. There was one time where I was taking a final at 11 p.m. After studying all day for days, sitting in the dark with the bright white lights in the room created such a separate feel from the rest of campus. It felt like a hospital and it drove me crazy.”
“When I take a test there, all I think is, ‘I got to get out of there.’ I feel like I have to rush through it even though I have way too much time to finish. I just feel like I have to get out of there.”
O’Brien said in February 2020 that the center has measures to curb anxiety. White noise machines drown out background noise, he said, and privacy screens on computers grey out other students’ screens, so test takers won’t be distracted.