By
The Wildcat Opinions Board
So you found us.
For UA students who pick up their Arizona Daily Wildcat at the Memorial Student Union stands everyday, getting a copy at that location has become a somewhat difficult task. You probably found yourself trudging around fences and taking various "detours" before making it to the Union.
In case some of you have forgotten about our gargantuan campus reconstruction projects, courtesy of Peter Likins Brainchildren, Inc., the enormous barricade of fences currently that locks in our makeshift Student Union won't be going away any time soon.
Does inconvenience pervade? Yes, for the first days of the semester, and probably for most our UA college careers given the tendency of construction projects to be bogged down by delays.
But despite the short-term aggravation, and the tendency of campus newspapers to poke fun, these developments at the UA are an important long-term investment.
When we gaze around campus at the blocked-off bike paths and and the latest "detours" that make us late to class, we tend to forget what the real dealio is. Aside from getting a "whole new U," the UA is constructing a whole new world for freshmen. Coined the Integrated Learning Center (ILC), it is intended to provide freshmen with classrooms, advising and other academic services.
For a university that is known mainly for its graduate research facilities, this emphasis on the sometimes neglected undergraduate program is an important improvement.
Grumble if you must, but you can't help but agree that investing in incoming freshmen is critical.
Given, there will be short-term annoyances as this effort to improve the campus materializes.
The bike path that hundreds of UA students use daily will be shut down until January 31. In lieu of normal sidewalks we have strange pathways around Old Main. Big orange signs boasting "Detour," that really mean, "Hey, we've torn up the mall, but look! We've created a pretty nifty obstacle course through which you may trudge to class!" are used to advertise these pathways
And UA is not likely to have a fence-free campus for a long while, given the delays in construction.
ASUA, the UA Bookstore and student union administrators will not be moving into the new student Union until March 8.
The original move-in date was late November.
Even our beloved Arizona Daily Wildcat newsroom will be relocated during this Spring Break moving party.
UA seniors remember with nostalgia of a time when the campus looked beautiful. Memories of ultimate frisbee on the mall and sitting by the old fountain have been replaced with dirt mounds and bulldozers that are our reality as the campus undergoes this transformation.
But instead of resenting the way the campus looks when you graduate in May, leave the University of Arizona knowing that it is on the threshold of improving itself.
And avoid the bike path for a few weeks.
