OUR VIEW: Show some care for humanities students

So let’s say the big earthquake finally hits Utah right before finals week. All the students on USU campus will, obviously, be standing in doorways or under their desks with their arms covering their heads. Students in the new engineering building will be safe, we’re sure. The students in the library will probably also fare pretty well. And if the second engineering building was finished, who’s to doubt its inhabitants would be safe? Let’s keep all the engineers and science majors around. No problem. But on the other side of campus, you know, the old Ray B. West building and the Animal Science building located on either side of Old Main, let’s just say those buildings may not be standing after an earthquake, even a small one. How about all the writers, poets, artists, historians (professors and students alike) in those buildings who use literary means to change the world for the better? You got it. Gone.

Why? We ask ourselves the same question. While different buildings on campus are getting huge remodeling jobs done, our most unsound building on campus, Ray B. West, built in 1918, is sitting in line, waiting for a huge remodeling turn that may never come. Most of the rooms in the English building don’t even have standard computer equipment installed up front but instead have projector screens. Yes, those small, loud-fanned things from the 1980s. Surprise, they’re still here. And the box elder bugs infesting the building? Don’t get us started.

Students should come to USU expecting buildings to be a support when needed. Student safety should be a huge concern, especially since a large earthquake has been in Utah’s forecast for the last 50 years. If the engineering students get their safety secured, why the holdup for the humanities students?

The 2007 Mark Twains, Bill Shakespeares, Willa Cathers and Henry David Thoreaus attend class in the Ray B. West. Future Anderson Coopers and Peter Jenningses attend class in the Animal Science building. Let’s not lose any of them.

Oh, and if it’s too difficult to put the English building on the list, could we at least get an air conditioner in the Animal Science building? Better yet, let’s fix the radiator in the English and Animal Science buildings. Right now it sounds like someone is hitting a sledgehammer against the pipes. We figure one USU student’s full tuition could foot the bill.