<ir="ltr">In keeping with my current theme of writing about the updates and renovations to campus, I’ve decided that simply critiquing them is not enough. That would be extremely hypocritical given one of my largest pet peeves is when people shoot things down without contributing any other ideas. So, I would like to contribute my own suggestions. To take inspiration from our brand new welcoming “C” in front of Sayles, I have compiled some other things I would love to see added to the pavement around campus. I can’t believe something like this hasn’t happened earlier- all that grey space crisscrossing and zigzagging around campus is truly full of untapped potential.
For example, on the sidewalks that lead from one building to the next we could add some phrases that remind slow walkers to keep right and also remind bikers that just zooming around people and expecting them to guess which way they’re turning is rude. Saying ‘on your left’ and signaling is not that hard. Maybe some friendly reminders in the pavement would help with this.
Around the townhouses we could add some life tips for the people carousing there in the evenings. Maybe a sidewalk square saying “Drink Water!” would be nice. Another one could be “Remember: people live here and would like to sleep without listening to you shouting,” or a reminder inspired by multiple complaints over the past two years: “This is a Pee Free Zone. The bushes aren’t a bathroom.”
Of course, using the sidewalk as a type of campus memo is not the only possibility for the repaving project. We could try and turn the C into a campus wide motif. I suggest letters outside of every building, so that way we can never escape the knowledge of where we are. A potential problem with this is that it may prove confusing as many of the buildings start with the same letter. This could be solved by using the second letter of each name, for example Le for Leighton, Li for the Libe and La for Laird. However, as my friend Rachel Everett ‘18 pointed out, this may result in our campus resembling a gigantic periodic table of elements.
But, if we are looking at the campus renovations as a way to boost campus morale, or put smiles on faces, my vote is for sidewalk trampolines. It is practically science that it is much harder to be sad and stressed if you are jumping on a trampoline.
Overall, if we must continue the trend of adding little flourishes to campus, I vote we try to make sure they make a positive difference.