I find it highly irritating this University - of which I have been a student now for four years - continues to dabble in petty and wasteful activities, like redesigning logos and remodeling the College Avenue campus. Instead of making sure the non-academic workers will be secure in their jobs, fixing all of the unsafe and unsanitary living conditions on Livingston campus and ensuring academic and athletic programs are preserved - we get a new logo.
I consider myself to be on the level of Mr. Magoo in my pride of being both a Rutgers student and soon to be alumnus, and find it shocking more is not being done to take care of our most pressing issues. Namely, those of Livingston campus - where I lived for three-fourths of the previous academic year - and ensuring all of our existing facilities are maintained and that there are enough people maintaining them.
Now, I won't name individuals. But as an example, take the steps of the Ruth Adams Building on Douglass campus. Throughout the course of the summer, the steps on the Voorhees Chapel side of the building were in the process of being repaved. Halfway through the project - which was being undertaken by one man - he was laid off from facilities, leaving the project incomplete. Those steps, Mr. McCormick, have been crumbling ever since. It was not until this week the staircase and the entry door were roped off, presumably allowing for the work to continue.
Yet, the kind gentleman who was in the process of working on them originally never had a chance to finish them when they should have been finished in the first place. Concrete - when freshly poured - will crack and become brittle if applied in cold weather. Hence, the steps will crumble yet again. On top of this, that nice man lost his job, and has both a wife and children to support.
Need I mention the absolutely abysmal condition of the buildings on Livingston campus? I lived in Quad 1 Residence Hall last year, and the cockroaches were the size of silver dollars. The water from both the sinks and the fountains had a continuously foul taste and odour. And nearly all of the sidewalks are beginning to crumble.
What I am getting at, then, is there are much higher priority issues at this University than our logo or our public image. Granted, a good PR campaign will attract more students and business deals. But what will those people say when they see the leaking roofs in the Loree Building on Douglass campus, or taste the filthy and gray water from nearly 80 percent of our water fountains?
President Richard McCormick, I respect the fact that running a University is not exactly an easy job, and you and your associates are trying your best. Alas, I feel I can no longer keep quiet about the things I see. I feel perhaps what this University needs is to form a committee. "The Rutgers Renovation and Reform Committee," as an example, would be comprised of an equal number of students and staff from all corners of this great school to work together on fixing our most important problems.
I realize we do indeed have similar entities already in place. But I feel we need a dedicated forum where students and staff alike can voice their concerns, and those concerns can then be addressed and handled in such a way as to solve the problem once and for all.
Chris Franceschini is a University College Class of 2007 student.
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