Many students agree that Geneseo has a beautiful and whimsical campus. Geneseo students love to watch the fiery and picturesque sunsets to alleviate any stress they are afflicted with.
We keep the beautiful sunsets saved in our memories, however, there’s a new addition to our mental image of a Geneseo sunset: cranes, fences and unruly caution tape. This construction has interfered with student success.
No one could have predicted the campus would be so greatly impacted by what seems to be the perpetual construction on this campus. Students’ memories are being tarnished by the barricaded parts of our campus.
This college seems to always be a work in progress. Students who have been here for a few years can attest. Whether in reference to the College Stadium in 2015, Doty Hall, and Bailey Hall. Sophomores this year and definitely express the hassle of having Red Jacket Dining Hall being shut down their first year on this campus, where finding somewhere convenient to eat, a chore.
Sophomore communications major, Cara Sharkey, is particularly upset with how physically limited the campus feels now.
“It’s frustrating that we pay full tuition for only part of campus,” Sharkey said. “With 30 percent of our campus being closed off, it seems as if we’re being gypped.”
Many students were eager to return to school, especially with the anticipation of the completion the Sturges Quad construction. To their surprise, the hill leading up directly to the library has been closed off for—no surprise here—construction.
The Sturges Quad construction was a plague on our campus. With the Seuss Spruce and Greek Tree being focal points to our campus, replacing them with an unsightly mess of construction seemed like an unfair trade.
The noises elicited by metal banging and the clamor of debris flying everywhere forced many professors to redesign their lesson plans. The loud noises coming from the window weren’t an optimal classroom setting for taking tests where undivided attention is required.
Almost every Geneseo student inevitably becomes an expert mountain climber with all the steep hills on our campus. The construction has only made our daily commute to class a larger obstacle.
Construction is currently being done on the steep hill at College Circle and College Drive, the hill that leads directly to Newton and used by many students. This hill has proven a more convenient path compared to Sturges Quad, climbing five different flights of stairs to adjacent to the union and Welles, to then get to a steep hill through the Sturges Quad. Once you feel like you’ve climbed Mt. Everest, you end up between Wadsworth Auditorium and Erwin Hall, whereas the hill that’s closed off would take you directly to Milne and Newton - typically where almost every student is headed.
We pay tuition at this university to be active students. We hope that our campus gives us the capacity to have an optimal academic environment for our academic success.
Beyond how unsightly it is, the construction contains annoying sounds and creates physical obstacles that hinders students in getting to their classes on time.
In the Facilities Planning & Construction section on Geneseo’s website, there are tabs titled Active Design & Construction Projects and Projects Shelved for Later Construction. The list in both tabs goes on and on, suggesting there’s light at the end of a long tunnel - where we won’t be able to fully use our campus to it’s full potential in a long while.
We’ve become desensitized to the sounds of construction. Blocked off sections of campus have become part of the status quo. Every current student may be well gone before our campus is restored to the desired product of the college. This is not the Geneseo students signed up for, and it is more than unfair that this is what we’re left with.