As I was eating my favorite snack, fried Spam – it shows in how greasy my hair is sometimes – and reading over a copy of a magazine that one of my professors had given me, I thought of a conversation he and I had a few weeks ago.
My professor proposed that the idea of sidewalks was a way of making individuals conform to a set path, rather than letting them walk where they wanted to.
The next part of this conversation was important. What was being discussed was sod. More specifically, we were talking about the sod the maintenance department had laid down earlier in the week in order to cover the pathways that students had worn down in their desire to walk their own paths.
Well, that’s where the discussion comes in.
While I would say that cutting across the corner in order to save five steps (Andrew Hodges and I counted the short cut right by the library door) makes someone lazy, perhaps others would view it as bucking conformity in order to go their own way.
Perhaps from now on when large complexes like college campuses are built, construction crews should not pour any sidewalks for the first few weeks, and then simply fill in where the students or employees have walked.
What does this have to do with anything?
It brings me to the subject of beautification.
Not only are these shortcuts a sign of laziness, they maker the school look more ugly.
Our nice green lawn is marred by long, beat down, paths of brown dirt.
One of the things that our campus has going for it is that it looks nice – it’s chock full of trees with a little stream and a pond so one feels like he is closer to nature than when he is actually there.
So please try not to ruin that in order to save a few steps.
The problem isn’t just students, though.
Lately I have noticed an assortment of new lawn ornaments that Baker has been acquiring, much to my dismay.
I returned from study abroad at Harlaxton to find a sign proclaiming “Parmenter Hall” placed solidly and obnoxiously across the sidewalk from the building whose name it bears.
Aside from the fact that it is not very near to Parmenter Hall and is just as close to that building as it is to the Wildcat Café, the sign is not very attractive, as many people have pointed out to me.
I hope it is not the first step in a plan to put one of these large signs in front of every building at Baker.
But if it is not, that surely makes it look even weirder, doesn’t it?
My favorite new addition to Baker’s campus is the bench outside the side door of the library.
It is too small for two people to sit on, is right in the path of the traffic and is brightly colored. Other than to cover up a stump, I can’t see what purpose it serves.
I guess what I am trying to say is that lazy students and out-of-control landscapers should get together and figure out a way to keep our campus looking beautiful.