For the past three months, I’ve taken greater enjoyment from criticizing Boston University. It’s been a way for me to vent about all of the crazy things that BU has done (or not done). I’ve written about its lack of air conditioning, the not so great dining options, the sketchy elevators and the awful guest policy. I’ve complained about dining points, the housing registration process, the incessant fire alarms, the annoying BU Shuttle and Mugar Library. I’ve trash-talked almost everything that has bugged me since day one of going to this school but that’s not to say that I don’t think that BU is one of the most amazing universities.
No matter how cynical my articles have been, I love this school. I love the sense of community that BU fosters, the array of clubs and organizations, the wonderful professors and classes and the free events that are always offered. There are many other fantastic things about BU that I could talk about but it always seems easier to criticize than to compliment. Let’s be real – isn’t it always that way?
While I haven’t said it before, the reason behind my anger is that instead of fixing these problems, BU management has decided to spend a laughable amount of money on a new student center: A whopping $65 million.
On the one side, the new center is a great addition that would truly help out many students. Those that live on East Campus are often at a disadvantage because of the distance between them and all of the amenities that Central and West Campus offer. If they want to go work out at FitRec, they basically get in a separate workout just by trying to get over there. I know that if I lived down there, I would never have the motivation to walk over a mile and then have to work out (to be fair, I live in West Campus and even there I don’t have the motivation to go to FitRec).
The new center would also fix the problem of the weak dining options available to students throughout East Campus. While they have three dining halls to choose from, all of them are quite small and don’t have as many options as the larger dining halls. BU management plans to get rid of the smaller dining halls in Myles Standish, Shelton and Towers, which will make room for more study spaces, and create a larger dining hall such as the one in West Campus. Laurie Pohl, vice president for enrollment and student affairs, estimates that the building of a new dining area will cost less than if they wanted to renovate all of the smaller dining halls. So far, so good.
BU has even taken into consideration the aesthetic appeal of the center. Wanting to keep everyone happy, the architects will design a building that fits both sides of the street. On the side that is facing Commonwealth Avenue, the building will be six stories tall with a contemporary façade while the side facing Bay State will be three stories tall and made of brick.
With all of these new ideas and plans in the works, it seems as if BU is finally taking all of its students’ wants and needs into consideration. It’s quite refreshing. Now, I don’t want to be viewed as the crazy girl who is trying to halt the production of this building because that’s not exactly what I want to do. I think that the new center should be built – I just believe that BU needs to assess its priorities first before it spends $65 million on a new building. The last time I checked, that money could be used to fix a lot of other things at BU. And you just know that all of that money is coming from our tuition. I’m sure there will be signs posted around campus advertising the new center and at the bottom there will be the quote that BU is infamous for: “Partially funded by your student undergraduate fee.”
As one of the students partially funding this new endeavor, I would prefer if my money were spent on something else. Besides the many problems that I have brought up throughout the semester, there are other issues that still need to be addressed. Club teams deserve more money and better practice spaces, the George Sherman Union needs more options in the food court and Mugar Library needs to have better hours.
Attending BU was and is the right choice for me, but my experience at this school could be improved by leaps and bounds if BU management took the time to listen to what its students want.
Casey Rackham is a sophomore in the College of Communication and a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press. She can be reached at caseycr@bu.edu.
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You ignore a lot of other uses that will occupy this building, include the much needed space for career services and other CAS administrative uses. Buildings are expensive. I encourage you to take a look at the BU facilities website which shows a lot of the smaller projects that have gone on just over the last year at BU. I think a lot of this has to do with educating yourself on what actually is being done, and then you may perhaps not complain as much. Don’t get me wrong, when I was a student at BU I had a whole host of complaints, but this is a school that is making quality improvements and that is a good thing.
The BU Law expansion is going to be significantly important, architecturally and academically.
Thanks for your comments. I’m not disagreeing with you at all. I want the new center to be built – I’m not arguing against that, and yes I do know that the building with be home to career services and other CAS administrative uses. The issue at hand is that BU has other serious issues that it needs to take care of. Hopefully BU will be able to multitask and fix what needs fixing while they also build a new building.