Column: MU tips over toy box of projects

By Elizabeth Eberlin
April 11, 2008

I’ve always found something about the sheer number of construction projects on campus to be slightly unsettling. From the engineering buildings to Schurz Hall, MU is continually being torn up and torn down to make way for newer and perceivably better things. I generally have no problem with this, because it means my tuition money is being spent on school improvement instead of lining the pockets of some school official I will never know. But I still feel a vague sense of dissatisfaction every time I pass by what was once our beautiful quad, then walk past the torn-up area around Brady Commons to my bus stop and then get off the bus at my apartment building and spy the MU skyline, which now includes cranes in addition to the power plant smokestacks and Jesse Hall.

I had never been able to pinpoint the source of my building-based unrest until a couple days ago. My friend and I were walking from one class to another, discussing the construction situation in louder than normally appropriate voices while being sweetly serenaded by the melody of an early morning jackhammer. I can’t quote exactly what she said, but paraphrased, it went something like this:

“I guess they didn’t learn the rule about putting one toy away before getting another one out of the box, like your parents teach you when you are little.”

That was the explanation I had been looking for, the perfect way to clarify my discontent. A mental image of MU as a little child, eagerly tipping over the toy box full of construction projects on the living room floor that is our campus instead of getting them out neatly one at a time and finishing with one before starting another. Inevitably, the end result is a messy, tiresome living space.

MU doesn’t have a mommy or daddy to remind it to do unfun and aggravating things, such as practicing moderation or keeping its room clean. But it does have a lot of students, and based on conversations I’ve had with many of them, something needs to change.

We love having new buildings. We appreciate the time and hard work that goes into making sure we have some of the best facilities our money can buy. We are proud of our school’s innovation and enthusiasm for new and better things. What we don’t love is metal and orange tape, having to detour everywhere on campus to get to class and feeling like we’re not as important as the men and women who will be going here in the future, when all those construction projects are finally finished and many of us have already graduated.

For the sake of those future students, as well as my current classmates and myself, the university needs to finish playing with, picking up and putting away all the new toys it has set out and in the future, take out only a few toys (or projects) at a time.

Change is good, little MU. Change is wonderful. But too much at one time is messy and overwhelming, especially when a lot of other people have to deal with it.

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Column: MU tips over toy box of projects

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