It's no longer just a place to "do your business."

What was once just a men's bathroom stall in the second floor restroom in Engineering Unit D has been transformed into a place to confess sins as well.

"The confessional" as it has been appropriately titled, is the work of student Chris Rzomp (senior-architecture) who designed it as part of a class assignment.

After cutting a small 7-by-7 inch hole into the side panel of the bathroom stall and replacing it with a metal screen, Rzomp added elegant red velvet curtains with gold tassels and a red light for effect, turning the stall into a full-fledged confessional, meant in part to cause some disillusionment to those using the facility for its intended purpose.

"It is one of the only things I've done here in four years that I really like," Rzomp said. "It made a lot of sense."

However, several people feeling that disillusionment couldn't make sense of it, and it has caused some controversy. In early December, a university employee reported to Penn State Police Services that there was "weird stuff" going on in the men's bathroom, which led to an investigation.

Jack Quick, an officer with Penn State police said that when he looked into the report, he found that the panel that had been cut was very expensive material that would need to be either fixed or replaced at the expense of the department, both of which would be costly. He said there is no further investigation and it has been turned over to the architecture department to take care of it.

James Wines, head of the department of architecture, said he supports Rzomp's project, though art risks being subjected to assault, rejection, vandalism and rabid criticism.

"If you're going to give an outrageous performance, you're going to have the audience throwing tomatoes," Wines said. "Students do these avant garde projects and don't expect consequences. It's part of the game."

While the university considers "the confessional" an act of vandalism and has taken actions against it, the project itself has been the victim of theft and destruction, though the source remains anonymous and has as yet faced no consequences.

Several of the original plaques have been stolen and the hanging red light bulb has been cut off twice, much to the disgust of Rzomp and the professor who assigned the project, Michael Mussotter.

Mussotter, associate professor of architecture, would like to see anyone who opposes the project to come forward.

"No matter how much you disagree (with the project), this is no way to deal with it in an academic environment," Mussotter said. "I expect an academic atmosphere to be about freedom of speech, freedom of thought."

The idea for the confessional began in Rzomp's Architecture 497D (Das neue Berlin) or "the New Berlin" taught by Mussotter. The students were given an assignment called "sub-urban garages" where they were to use a garage as a metaphor and interpret it into what architects call an "installation," where something is implemented into an existing space as opposed to a drawing or model.

While some people may have seen Rzomp's interpretation of a garage as some sort of prank, he protests that there was some meaning behind it.

"It did have conceptual depth," Rzomp said. "It wasn't just funny."

He explained that his interpretation compared that what goes on behind the garage door is similar to what goes on behind the bathroom door.

"What goes on in them, what goes on behind closed doors — do you really want everyone to know what you're doing?" he said.

And Rzomp came across the idea for the confessional based on the fact that a bathroom is typically where a person goes to take care of business and cleanse themselves, much like a Catholic goes to a confessional to be cleansed of his or her sins.

Mussotter, a self-described "troublemaker," said he didn't expect his assignment and the project to cause such controversy, but supports Rzomp's confessional as a work of art.

"Of course I didn't tell my student to do this, it was his own idea. He told me he wanted to do the confessional, it sounded kind of interesting to me," he said. "When he showed me the thing I thought it was kind of funny. I didn't expect all of this."

And like any exam or term paper, Rzomp received a final grade for his project.

"He got an 'A' of course," Mussotter said. "He was very courageous. This was not a joke, and he did a brilliant job."