As a college student, I’m not big on change. I’m not sure if it’s because of my anxiety or because my school and workloads are so overwhelming, I need everything to stay the same so I don’t have to stress about anything else. Whatever the reason, I don’t like change. If I had it my way, I would have this campus back to the same way it was when I was a freshman four years ago. One thing that has changed recently that has given me so much grief is the move of the library, tutoring center, and campus media from the Carlton Center to Branch Hall.
In a lot of ways, the reasons I dislike this move so much are selfish. I’ve been working for the Stallion since my second year on this campus and it has always been at the bottom of the Carlton Center. There was once when the Stallion office had to move but we moved across the hall and managed to adapt quickly. That office became our home so when we heard the news that we would have to move again, this time across campus, it was devastating; but I might be overreacting.
Moving from the Carlton Center to Branch Hall put a strain on the workload for the Stallion. When we first moved over, our work came to a stop for a few hours because we didn’t have the network we needed to access the resources we needed to get the paper done. On top of that, our space is much smaller than the previous office.
The placement of the new office makes my day to day schedule more difficult than it should. When the Stallion was located at the bottom of the Carlton Center, it was in the middle of campus. I was able to go from my room at Place to the office and wait until my next class because my classes were always in Conger or King. It takes 30 seconds to walk from the Carlton Center to Conger or King. Now that we’ve moved to Branch, that makes my procrastination between classes more difficult. I shouldn’t have to walk that far to get to class. This is ridiculous.
I mentioned that my reasoning for hating this move was purely selfish but look at it from other student’s eyes. Moving everything from the Carlton Center put a strain on the students around campus. Not being able to have a set place to study, use a computer or get tutored hurts students. The computers and printers that the library provides were not available at the beginning of the semester. Students had to clamor together in the already cramped up space that is the Town Hall computer lab.
I understand that moving everything over to Branch Hall was necessary because of the renovations that will be happening to the Carlton Center, but there was a better way to do it. It would have been better if they moved the top floors of the Carlton Center first, focused on the renovations there and left everything at the bottom alone. It should have been taken one step at a time. But, what do I know? I’m just a college student, not an architect or contractor, and I may not see the whole picture.