Bridge to Nowhere

It isn't easy to secure renovation money to remove -- rather than add -- construction. I'd like to see Trinity remove the bridge, pictured above, that goes nowhere, except into a brick wall along the third floor of Thomas residence hall. Previously, there was a doorway into the building where the bridge ends. When the University went to a proximity card access program (for students to use their ID cards), my colleague, John Greene, Director Facilities Services, started eliminating exterior doors.

Originally dorms featured key access, which proved unreliable, resulted in frequent door propping, and didn't allow for accountability. The new system is far better, but far more expensive. Thus the Great Door Crusade. Students were livid. The residents in Thomas Hall would be forced to use primary entrances on first and third floors. The push-back was tremendous, as the door closure was simply more evidence (to students) of a callous administration insensitive to student wants and needs. Even if the ultimate goal was student safety.

That comes with the territory on a college campus. Students protested the creation of the now popular first-year quad, they liked - then didn't - then did, the Sophomore College and group housing/community initiatives/block housing. Former HUGE campus issues included students not clearing their own trays in the dining hall and also leaving trash cans outside their doors so maids wouldn't disturb them when sleeping in. On the latter issue, students would leave the trash cans outside and just open the door when they needed to discard trash. That created issues related to animals (in exterior halls) and drunk trash can kickers - not one in the same. There was a nasty and public halftime Homecoming tradition as well, that seemed to mock, in a very inadequate biological re-creation, the conception process. The Good Ol' Days.

Resistance to change isn't exclusive to college students, though. University professors and staff are not always completely open to shifting tides. At least with students, the turnover every four years quickly creates short memories of how things used to be. In this first year of our new President, there have been plenty of changes on campus, from banning University-bought individual water bottles in departments (some nonsense about the planet), to staffing changes at the executive level and elsewhere, to new budgeting procedures. With each change of Presidents there are always hopes for - and then resistance to - change. It is easier in theory than in practice. I am not immune either. Every time I say to students "that won't work here" or "we already tried that" I can hear the cock crowing for the third time. Dang it.

Indeed, in my own area, working with ARAMARK has brought changes to the University Club and to the new plan. The new plan addresses years of complaints, yet is being met with suspicion and some (minor) push-back. So I see the issue from both sides.

And so it goes. We can follow the same old paths that end up with us running into brick walls, or we can embrace new and different ways... and change. This is a really exciting time for our University on so many levels. And it is happening at a pace we aren't accustomed to. Not all change is good, nor is it all bad. But resistance for resistance sake can take us nowhere - other than a dead-end street.