Students, professors and meme pages have examined how and why the MARB should or should not continue to exist.
Built from 1968 to 1969 by Tolboe Construction and renovated in 2000, the Thomas L. Martin Classroom Building, or MARB, stands tall as a working-class BYU building. Today, it serves a variety of purposes, from housing Japanese and study skills classes to accommodating church and institute needs.
Outside, the MARB greets all comers with large glass doors and unassuming, square architecture. Inside, it resembles a sort of 1970s-era Hogwarts, with staircases and classrooms filling each cross-shaped floor. Sans the colors of the chairs, the MARB is largely standard for a BYU building, albeit a bit smaller.
Although it seems run-of-the-mill, the MARB has generated a surprising amount of opinion from all sides. Some visitors complain of legroom issues and space constraints. Others feel indifferent. Some embrace the building for what it is. The internet has amplified all of these opinions.
Instagram is home to all voices of the MARB opinion spectrum. Accounts like @marb.building.sucks, @marb.is.the.best.building and @marb_is_a_building simultaneously decry, love or simply acknowledge the MARB’s existence through memes mixed with advocacy.
While all of these pages are meant to be satirical, they reflect real views that exist among the students and staff.
After some investigation, one of the former admins of the marb.building.sucks account, the most followed of all the MARB Instagram pages, was identified and interviewed. Mark Ensign, a BYU graduate, helped manage the account’s posts until his graduation this past spring.
The marb.building.sucks account gained enough traction to host a blanket giveaway last year, featuring custom "I Hate The MARB" blankets and a tongue-in-cheek anti-MARB Change.org petition with almost 100 signatures.
The petition says things like “BYU students are tortured on the regular in the MARB” and “No leg room, hot classrooms, confusion upon exiting, etc.,” as well as this plea: “We should not have to endure this torture any longer. Show your support for tearing down the MARB by signing this petition.”
When asked about the MARB and being an admin for marb.building.sucks, Ensign commented on his perspective.
“I think that the building ideally should be torn down and another building be constructed to take its place," Ensign said. "I get that the MARB logistically is an important building, but I think that BYU should build a classroom building that just feels more functional and conducive to learning.”
Ensign also shared how he felt about the design of the MARB’s interior.
“I really just dislike how cramped the MARB feels on the inside. There’s no natural light and the classrooms are very packed," he said. "The lack of leg room in the lecture halls and the rooms on the main floor has so many desks all clumped together.”
Though Ensign no longer attends BYU, his opinions still linger in the minds of staff and students alike.
Lori Spruance, a BYU public health and honors program professor, shared her thoughts about the layout of the building.
“How my students are experiencing the class is incredibly important to learning. I like to move around the class if I can. I feel like I’m stuck up toward the front and I can’t ever get around," Spruance said. "The classroom environment, like the physical building (and) the seats, is important to me.”
Spruance went as far as refusing to teach in the MARB on one occasion.
On the other side, some students and faculty feel more neutral toward the MARB.
Abbey Pettit, a physical education and coaching major, said she was indifferent toward everything in it except the legroom.
“There are a lot of seats really close together," Pettit said. "I’m tall, so it’s usually really packed in all the classrooms.”
Melanie Burton, a study skills professor and academic advisor, explained why the MARB is not all good or all bad.
“I think there’s some nostalgia to the old buildings, but I think there’s also improvements when we do get the new buildings. I'm kind of neutral on that," Burton said.
Certain students take yet a different view, believing that changing the MARB would not necessarily benefit the student body as a whole.
Samuel Edwards, an undeclared junior, held this opinion.
“I don’t think it should be torn down. It’s not an eyesore, and all that’s gonna do is cost a lot of money, take a lot of construction and mess class schedules around a lot because they're gonna have to find new rooms and stuff for a lot of classes," Edwards said.
These opinions all represent the broad spectrum that encompasses public perception of the Thomas L. Martin Classroom Building. Though students and staff members differ in their opinions on the future of the MARB, one thing is sure: The MARB is a lot more controversial than it looks.