As everyone knows by now, the construction on the updated War Memorial Student Union has taken over campus. For the first few weeks of school, everyone complained about how inconvenient and annoying the construction was, myself included. However, now that we have been back at school for over a month, the annoyance has faded and the construction has become part of a normal day on campus.
Yes, the construction has blocked a road and taken away some parking spaces. Yes, it has interfered with some of the shortcuts and normal paths that everyone takes to class or even just to go to the Student Union. What the construction hasn’t done, however, is create one united, positive opinion on campus.
The money was not spent and the construction was not started to inconvenience people, although many people might believe otherwise. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I think that people should stop complaining and just deal with it.
Everyone on campus has been affected in some way or another, I decided a few weeks into school that complaining about it wouldn’t make it any better. My daily routine honestly has not changed all that much because of the construction. I still walk through the union to go from Meade Hall to D Vickers and vice versa every day.
Some people might be avoiding the union because of limited time between classes or wanting to avoid a crowd. What I’ve noticed is that there aren’t any more or less people in the union than last year. People who want to eat in the Lion’s Den still go there and people who want free scantrons still go to the Student Government Association office.
One of the few things that the construction has affected in my life is events.
Some events that are normally located in the union, and even in the Pottle Music Building, have been relocated because of the construction. The construction doesn’t keep me from attending events that I am interested in. It doesn’t matter if something is in the union, Pottle or even the Columbia Theatre. I think that the events that are worthy of attention should still draw the same people they normally do.
The construction is here and will remain a part of campus for the next two years, so everyone might as well embrace it because, like it or not, this is the new normal.
Besides, when the construction is completed in two or so years, nobody will be complaining about the bigger, better Student Union. For that reason alone, everyone on campus should embrace the construction and look forward to the future. If people stop focusing on the few drawbacks of the construction, they might actually find that it isn’t as bad as it seems and the positives of the new union will outweigh the minor setbacks of the construction.