2008 Woodie Awards
Our thoughts on the master plan
Editorial Staff
Issue date: 11/19/07 Section: Opinion
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Gathering the opinions of all the editors is never an easy task, but in order to make this an editorial each one should contribute. This article is two weeks in the making, and we have done our best to compile our opinions for your enjoyment. We'll assume you're familiar with the general plans for the future campus.
Anyone who has ever lived in Woodstock would probably agree that it's in dire need of renovation, and the Master Plan calls for demolishing it and building new housing. Perhaps the problem is that the people who apply to Clarkson every year don't even see the inside of a Woodstock apartment before they apply. By the time they realize that they'll most likely be stuck living there, or be friends with people who do, there's no way they're leaving Clarkson. Students spend most of their time in their rooms, so it's important to have good housing options. However, if new housing is being constructed, where are all those students going to live? Unless they can come up with a way to demolish Woodstock and construct new housing over the course of a summer, they may have to (gasp!) let people live off campus for a semester, thus losing the $2900 per person it costs to live there. Although replacing them entirely is a nice idea, it will probably involve many delays, so any current student who hopes to live in the theoretical new housing should probably just give up that dream now.
The library really needs new furniture and carpeting, and compared to the "two to three hundred million dollars" that Tony Collins thinks all of these changes will cost, they would be pretty cheap. Green and orange went out of style before any of us were born.
One aspect of the master plan that most like is the decison to make Clarkson a walking campus. Drivers hate having to yield to pedestrians all the time, especially when they're late for class, and pedestrians hate having to pay attention to traffic. The parking lot outside of the ERC is being turned into a lawn, which is great for everyone except people who currently park there. Hopefully they'll build new parking before taking away what exists, like they did with the newest parking lot between the Quad and the Pit.
Anyone who has ever lived in Woodstock would probably agree that it's in dire need of renovation, and the Master Plan calls for demolishing it and building new housing. Perhaps the problem is that the people who apply to Clarkson every year don't even see the inside of a Woodstock apartment before they apply. By the time they realize that they'll most likely be stuck living there, or be friends with people who do, there's no way they're leaving Clarkson. Students spend most of their time in their rooms, so it's important to have good housing options. However, if new housing is being constructed, where are all those students going to live? Unless they can come up with a way to demolish Woodstock and construct new housing over the course of a summer, they may have to (gasp!) let people live off campus for a semester, thus losing the $2900 per person it costs to live there. Although replacing them entirely is a nice idea, it will probably involve many delays, so any current student who hopes to live in the theoretical new housing should probably just give up that dream now.
The library really needs new furniture and carpeting, and compared to the "two to three hundred million dollars" that Tony Collins thinks all of these changes will cost, they would be pretty cheap. Green and orange went out of style before any of us were born.
One aspect of the master plan that most like is the decison to make Clarkson a walking campus. Drivers hate having to yield to pedestrians all the time, especially when they're late for class, and pedestrians hate having to pay attention to traffic. The parking lot outside of the ERC is being turned into a lawn, which is great for everyone except people who currently park there. Hopefully they'll build new parking before taking away what exists, like they did with the newest parking lot between the Quad and the Pit.
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