A "breakdown in communications" is being blamed for turning what should be a proud achievement at the Regional Technical College in Galway into a public relations headache for the college.
Art and design students who returned to or started at the college recently have been forced to work in the college gym, a student canteen and other areas while a new home for them is completed.
According to the president of the students' union, Mr Emmet Spring, the students have been forced to work in deplorable conditions, with inadequate heating and light and insufficient materials or equipment, while construction work continues on the new facility.
"All of this comes as no surprise, considering the nomadic nature of art and design over the last 20 years at Galway RTC," he says.
"In a city renowned for culture and the arts, it is difficult to understand or condone the attitude of the college management to the course. Lecturers, too, are affected, as they are expected to teach in such primitive and insulting conditions."
Two years ago the RTC bought Cluain Mhuire, the former Redemptorist seminary in Galway, for £1.55 million. The college is spending £2 million on renovating the building as a centre for the creative arts.
Behind the understandable anger of the students at the present conditions, the "big picture" is that art and design is finally getting the recognition it deserves.
According to the RTC's director, Mr Gay Corr, the new centre will cater for up to 800 students, with purpose-built facilities for art and design, including working with textiles, print and paint, sculpture and ancillary materials.
While the college eventually hopes to offer a degree in art and design, the centre will also cater for film and video students "and possibly music down the road", he says.
The first phase of the renovation work started during the summer and was due to be completed by the time the students returned last month. The start of the work was delayed because of difficulties in securing finance for the project.
When the college became aware that it would not be finished in time it discussed the matter with the students' union, which agreed on the use of the gym, canteen and other areas as a temporary resort.
The college is confident the work will be completed by the end of the month, according to Mr Carr. Students who have lost out on parts of their course will be given the opportunity to regain lost ground later in the year.
"It's somewhat painful at the moment but it will be worth it . . . we have a plan in place to ensure that if there are any shortcomings we can make up for it during the rest of the year," he said.
Concerns about this lost ground, and the present conditions, dominated an angry meeting of the students in the college last Monday.
Local TDs Eamon O Cuiv and Michael D. Higgins criticised management for failing to communicate properly with the students about the project. Although they were invited, no management representatives attended the meeting.
The former minister for arts, culture and the Gaeltacht spoke passionately about what he described as a failure to plan or consult adequately about the development of art and design in the college.
This attitude, he said, reflected a general neglect of the arts in the college and the "philistine" approach to it adopted by some sections of the local community.
"I think that if you were debating the future of visual arts in RTC Galway you would have a planning committee several years ago. You would have decided that you wanted to go for excellence. You would have looked at ways of integrating it with the city. You would have been up harassing me and looking for money, and you might or might not have decided to go for Cluain Mhuire," Mr Higgins said.
He also raised wider questions about Galway's claim to fame as an artistic centre.
"I find it absolutely unbelievable that not a single person in the city has asked the question as to whether there is to be one penny of art in a new £10 million building that will be the headquarters of the county council," he said.
"One of the last actions I took before I left was to publish the new proposals for the extended 1 per cent [spending] on public art in the Departments.
"And here's a city that calls itself all of these kind of things, and yet it's silent on something like that."