Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Tear down this wall

With the beginning of another school year rapidly approaching, the question on the mind of yours truly is "Will all the construction on campus be done in time?"

For the past year, campus has been practically cut in half by the construction of a new chemistry building. The construction site comes complete with a barbed wire fence to prevent anyone from shortening their travel times.

Meanwhile, a new art building is also under construction nearby, making even more of campus off limits. Western also tore up the stairs between Knauss and Dalton, making travel routes even more circuitous. Recently, Western has started digging up sections of sidewalk in seemingly random locations all over campus. They include places near Brown, Faunce, and Rood halls.

West Michigan Avenue remains under construction, as well. The North side of the road was finished a while back, but the south side remains dug up.

The new chemistry building appears to be nearing completion. I can't help but wonder whether it will actually be done in time. Classes have been scheduled to start there in the fall. The old chemistry building, McCracken, has been designated for use by English and other departments while Brown hall is renovated. (Ah-hahahahaha!!!) I'll bet that Western is glad that classes are starting after Labor Day this year.

Construction has marked by some peculiarities, including the construction of a giant ramp near Waldo library that was torn down a month later.

Anyhow, the good news that inspired this post is the fact the portion of the barbed wire fence that surrounded half of the parking lot between Sangren and Kanley has been taken down. This made travel particularly long all last year. The rest of the fence remains, for now.

In totally unrelated news, enrollment has declined since Judy Bailey became President of Western.

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