OUR VIEW: More construction woes on campus

The TSC patio is one of the most heavily trafficked areas on campus. Together with the Hub, it serves an important purpose as one of the few places on campus that students can come together to eat, socialize and connect. Because so many students go through the patio each day, it also serves as a place for clubs and organizations to reach out to students.

    But in recent weeks, full-blown, gravel-crunching construction has caused a problem for students who normally use the patio between classes. In an effort to make the patio more wheelchair accessible, the entire patio has been roped off to students for the duration of the repairs. For students going to and from the TSC, this means an inconvenient detour.  The usually-heavy flow of traffic is directed around the construction mess through a single door located on the southeast side of the Hub.

    By this time of the semester, most of us have a normal “route” that we use to get to class that has now been disturbed. Not only does the detour cause confusion and interrupt the normal flow of students, the alternate routes can cause “traffic jams” that cause students to be late for class.

    The loud noise caused by the construction is also a problem. Students who go through the detour route or walk by the construction have to deal with annoying, if not deafening sounds.

    And while the construction is taking place to help the accessibility of handicapped individuals, it temporarily eliminates the automatic doors, making it harder for students in wheelchairs to access the building from the south side. Though we appreciate the improvements and efficient use of limited resources, it seems like a lot of inconvenience to make something more convenient.

    With all of these problems in mind, we have to ask why, in the middle of the semester, they’ve chosen to tear up and rebuild one of the most populated areas on campus. Why couldn’t they have chosen to make this change during the summer when fewer students are attending, or even better, during the long winter break? The need for wheelchair maneuverability is not new – surely they could have chosen a more reasonable time to tear up the patio.