Ever find yourself walking down the Mall and admiring the gorgeous scenery all around?
The lush green grass, the majestic bull statue, the pristine fogging fountain, and all of that heavily-tarped chain-link fence covering up construction zones.
Beautiful, isn’t it?
According to the map of the campus on Pierce’s official website, 11 of the 55 building on campus are under construction, a perfect 20 percent.
However, nine of those 11 buildings under construction are located on or close to the Mall, effectively separating the campus into two halves.
Needless to say, the construction zones lining the Mall need some re-evaluating.
Pierce’s brand new, state-of-the-art library, which was scheduled to be completed by October of this year and fully operational by the beginning of the Spring 2013 semester, has been delayed until the Fall 2013 semester at the earliest after it was discovered that several features of the new building were not up to code.
It looks as if we’ll get to enjoy the view for a little while longer. Simply a joy, don’t you think?
Heading further South down the Mall, one finds the old Physics and Administration buildings, which sit half-finished and boarded up thanks to budget cuts that simply forced the college to stop working on them.
In fact, the entire East side of the Mall from Parking Lot 1 to Parking Lot 7 is lined with construction areas, save for the one small pathway connecting the gym and the Village to the rest of the campus that takes travelers through the S. Mark Taper Foundation Life Science Botanic Garden.
Not only is the walkway narrow and lined with sharp cacti, but the amount of students walking the path during the busy times of day on campus really makes you feel like part of a herd of cattle moving slowly to the next feeding ground.
Understandably, the powers that be have other things to worry about on campus, like whether or not Proposition 30 will truly save the college from all of these nasty budgets cuts, but surely something can be done to fix the school’s many construction problems.
Opening up a few more walkways between the buildings separating the Mall and the Village will alleviate some of the stresses and congestion along that lone trail and breathe some new life into that side of the campus.
Not much can be done with the library while they fix the mistakes, but some sort of positive news regarding the project would be music to the ears of the students that look at the building day after day and seemingly find no improvement.
Give us a chance to enjoy being on campus.
