JACLYN MARR

ASST. SPORTS EDITOR

As students prepared for the beginning of a new semester, some were in for an unpleasant surprise. Residents in Jasper Hall started their day and headed to class, only to discover that their main pathway to campus was closed. Due to construction, the pathway was inaccessible. The path was being repaved in order to continue the stonework from the quad.

Construction began and blocked off the path, without any heads up given to the residents that would be affected by it. There was no timetable stated as to how long it would take to be completed.

“To be honest, that was the most annoying part,” junior and Jasper resident Giaunna Gwinn said. “It was just closed one day.”

Students were not happy with the situation, and rightfully so. Whether it was getting to class on time or simply walking to another part of campus, students had to take a longer route around the buildings to get where they needed to. This, for some students, caused a delay in getting to class on time.

“It was awful,” sophomore Jasper resident MichaelAnn Agel said. “I was late to class twice.”

Causing even more problems, the walkway in the front of Miguel to Hayden Hall was closed for a few days as well. So when students from Jasper needed to get to Hayden, they once again needed to find an alternative route.

“You would have to give yourself a solid 3-4 minutes additional time,” Gwinn said. “And that still wasn’t enough sometimes.”

One of the main issues with this is that it should have been completed over the summer, without getting in the way of students. Construction started along with the first week of classes and that wasn’t fair for Jasper residents to have to deal with.

Another problem was that it took a good amount of time. The pathway was closed for about a week and Jasper residents were getting tired of it. Maybe if it only took a couple days or so, it wouldn’t have been much of an issue.

“It seemed like something simple to change,” sophomore Ashley Columbia said, “and it took awhile.”

Some even argue that the construction wasn’t worth it. The continued path of stonework is pleasing but it perhaps was not needed. It is not a major part of campus and there’s not much traffic through there besides the Jasper residents.

“I don’t really care what the path looks like,” Gwinn said, “as long as it is accessible.”

Things would have been different and somewhat easier if Jasper residents were simply given a warning and estimate of how long the construction would take. That would have given them a chance to prepare for an alternate route and not be upset about missed communication between the school and students.