By Hannah Bouchard
I’m just gonna say what everyone’s thinking: the tree removals by Seminary Hall are the best thing to happen to this college in a long time. When I get that fifth “Seminary Hall – Dead Oak Tree Removal” email, it really makes my day. Sometimes it feels like Facilities is the only thing that gets me. It helps me sleep at night knowing that I’m going to hear that stump grind up during Italian class. The music that is tree stump grinding is just what this university has been missing.
If there’s one thing that makes me want to join the Peace Corps more than knowing that the entire Seminary lawn is one big caution sign, it’s the fact the path next to the Health Center has been closed since August. For a while there, I thought it WOULDN’T be closed for the entire semester, and then I thought it might be fixed after winter break, but thank god I was wrong. In case you don’t know, there’s a path along the side of the health center, which is undoubtedly the most unnecessary path on campus, (That’s right, including the three different paths all breaking from the same middle path to EC. You think we only need one? Nonsense.) and it’s simply ignorant to assume that students that live in the suites, Tolley or Brown would need that path to cut the travel time from the dorms to Commons. If anything, we’re so much better off having to cut through Welch or going all the way up the hill from our dorms, down the hill and then cross over to Commons. It’s 2018, and Michelle Obama didn’t fight childhood obesity for us to be taking the shortcut like fools.
The actual reason this path has been off limits for so many long and beautiful months is because it is ENTIRELY destroyed. One of the bricks along the side of the path fell, and if someone walked that way, we already know that pesky missing brick will come back and attack when you’re not looking, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’m ready to risk my life over a quicker way to get my breadsticks and watered-down cranberry juice.
Facilities, if you’re reading this, I come to you as a student voice, begging for more. I think the next step is to close both the ramp and the stairs to the front of Brothers College, so that we have to go through the back. It’s really the only feasible option once the Seminary oak and the Health Center path are finished after I graduate. Give the class of 2045 what they want: repairs.
Hannah is a freshman
