If you walk outside your dorm in any direction, it doesn’t take long until you see a traffic cone, crane or blocked-off street. That is, if you don’t hear it first. This academic year there has been a significant amount of construction projects to update facilities and change things around campus. While campus revisions are welcome, the decisions on why certain areas of campus are being worked on has left me wondering if the trouble of construction is really worth it.
As of right now there are five active construction sites on campus, with more expected to come. Only the new School of Nursing and renovations of Gant are academic-related remodels, with the rest being for campus aesthetics or student-athlete use. In addition, the university proposed a golf practice facility to be constructed on the acreage behind campus in December of last year. The golf team, which is currently made of nine members, has been practicing in a simulator in Gampel Pavilion and looking for a real course that would support them. This facility would be for private use by the golf team, not benefiting anyone else besides these nine athletes. Despite the need for remodels for safety, I would argue the construction is causing more disruptions to life on campus than what will be added to campus when the projects are complete.
One example of this disruption concerns the McMahon Residence Hall. The South side was previously closed for three months to fix the stairways. This forced residents of the South side to walk to other exits when they wanted to leave the building, leaving only one parking lot accessible. Now that the South side is open again, residents were looking forward to having both sides available. However, construction is now taking place on the opposite side, once again inconveniencing residents. That side is closer to the Rec and the Union, both popular spots for students.
In terms of other dorms, Garrigus, Werth Tower, Hale and Ellsworth Hall residents have also experienced the effects of construction. The Field House construction has been going on for over a year now and is said to take two more years to complete. Construction vehicles frequent the area from early morning until the afternoon, and as of late several road closures have made the area even less walkable. The disturbances from the Field House construction will only get worse as the Gampel renovations start soon, leaving residents of the same dorms impacted. Both areas are adding to refurbishments that are catered towards benefitting student-athletes.
These projects, which are costing the university hundreds of millions of dollars, should be exciting to witness as a campus. But when it only advantages a small percentage of the student population, it is hard to look forward to them. Instead, we only see how much of an obstacle they currently are for everyone on campus. It is also hard to see why fairly recent facilities are getting updates when there are dorms and buildings that are decades older that could use the same attention. The construction also comes at inconvenient times, whether it be beautification projects just to make the school nicer for perspective students before a Bound Day or just weeks before the end of the semester. The preparation for Gampel’s remodel has already thrown a wrench in end of semester plans, including annual championship basketball watch parties. The pressure for colleges to renovate is at an all-time high not just at UConn but nationally, with the argument that without updates enrollment will suffer. This sentiment comes with drawbacks because it leaves current students on the back burner while they prioritize the future of the university.
The cost of construction is about more than just money. It’s about the unnecessary strain it puts on students that makes us question who and what it is all for. The construction occurring has revealed a lot about where the priorities of the university lie, which are seemingly focused on future students and athletes.