AU students will surely welcome the opening of the new bridge to Mary Graydon Center and Butler Pavilion. Since the start of this school year, the bridge has been closed to foot traffic as construction crews crafted rounded steps to replace the simple "straight" steps from years past. Unfortunately, this welcome news is followed by an announcement that the busy front entrance of MGC will now be off-limits for the next two to three weeks. Until then, MGC will only be accessible by the two side entrances.
It seems that AU students are already getting used to these minor inconveniences. Construction crews at the new School of International Service building have fenced off areas of the quad, just as crews at the Kogod School of Business expansion site did. While the Kogod expansion should be finished by January, estimates for the SIS building place its opening during the next academic year. These projects, as well as an assortment of other smaller projects, prompted University Architect Jerry Gager to acknowledge that this is the most construction since the 1980s.
Despite the noise and the inconvenience, one should construe the construction on campus as a good thing for the school. If schools aren't constantly renovating and updating their facilities, it is only a matter of time before the facilities become obsolete. Accordingly, AU has slated Anderson Hall, which was last renovated in the middle of the 1990s, for another round of renovations in the coming years. This is good news for any future Anderson residents. It is a proactive move to renovate the hall now, rather than wait for it to deteriorate any further. Unfortunately, college students are rather hard on their residence halls.
For now, we just need to bite the bullet. We may not all be able to enjoy the new construction projects at their completion, but by improving facilities, the university is making a very good investment in its own and therefore our own futures.
