So it looks like the University is trying to clean up its appearance. Why? Because of the upcoming presidential debate that is going to be held on campus, of course. Why else would anything get renovated? Because they actually care about what the students think? Nope, not at all.
Genius decision number one (for those interested, that was sarcasm): adding lots of new lights to one of the hallways upstairs in the Student Center. Where there used to be can light fixtures there are now fluorescent tube lights everywhere. Lights are great, being able to see when walking down the hallway is also good, but there is no difference between a dark hallway and a blindingly bright hallway because either way, it’s still hard to see.
Mind you, it is only one section. The rest of that hallway going toward the Office of Student Leadership and Activities is dark. Yes, summer is approaching, but that doesn’t mean a tanning salon needs to be installed. Here is a piece of advice: next time you go upstairs, bring your sunglasses.
And another sudden change is walls being stripped everywhere one looks. One morning the wall against which the newspaper racks used to stand existed and the next morning it was stripped. Hopefully there is a legitimate reason that wall, and most likely others to come, was stripped and this is not a game of eeny-meeny-miny-mo-I-pick-this-wall.
Renovations are a good idea; there’s nothing wrong with them. However, suddenly starting to change everything in the middle of the semester starts to become an inconvenience to students. What students really would like to see, is coming back to renovated dorm rooms, better furniture and other changes that show students their money is being used to improve campus life and living conditions for them.
It seems that impressing all the political and media big-wigs that will be here in October for the debates is more important than caring about what students want. You know, those crazy kids that go from class to class and pay thousands of dollars in tuition to be here.
However, in the end these changes will make the school look better (hopefully) and at least the administration is trying to do something right as opposed to doing nothing at all. A great suggestion, though, for the administration would be to make sure that when students put in a work order to get something fixed, that the Plant department is available and not going crazy trying to paint every wall on campus in preparation for October.