University Building

While the success of Obama’s stimulus package is floundering in every sense of the word, the nation’s educational system is more than picking up the slack giving us a whole slew of shovel ready projects that merrily spend our tax dollars away. The building industry may be in the hole with home and business construction, but all levels of education are on an unprecedented building spree.

It clicked in my head when my son told my how misses using “THE” Ohio State University fitness facility. Since he has graduated and started back forth between here and Columbus on a semi-regular basis, he has been relegated back to the local Creekside fitness facility, which is a far cry from the four story state of the art facility in Columbus. Of course, YSU also has its own fitness facility…much of it paid for with donations…much of it paid for with tuition and tax dollars.

Can anyone tell me why school buildings wear out so quickly? When I went to Ohio State back in 1970, there was the Ohio Student Union on High Street, which was built in 1950. Then the school built an additional student union between the two new dormitory towers on the west side of the main campus in the late 1960's. If one student union is good, then two student unions must be better!! The school had approximately 49,000 students on the main campus.

Of course, the unions got “old.” The new union was closed and the old union (you know…the one built only 59 years ago on High Street) was torn down, and is being replaced with a temple to student unioness…you have to see this thing to believe it. The school still has about 49,000 students in attendance on its main campus. Can anyone tell me why, in a period of 50 years, “THE” Ohio State University had to build a total of 3 student unions? Who paid for it? You and me!!! Obviously our administrators have never been to Europe, where buildings are still in use that are several hundred years old…and that’s after a couple of major wars. Of course the new union has a grand hall and a great ballroom. Wow!!

My local pet peeve is the tearing down of Volney Rogers Junior High School, which was built in the 1960’s. It was a perfectly good building. But of course the state had some money from the tobacco settlement that was burning a hole in the now broke State of Ohio’s pocket…and they tore it down and built a new one. Why? I thought you needed a chair, a desk, and a teacher in order to teach students basic math. 1 + 1 still equals 2, whether in a new building or one that is 40 years old.

Youngstown State University has been on a building spree as long as I can remember. It has won awards for being one of the most beautifully urban universities in the country with marvelous landscaping. I remember when I attended school there in 1968, we had classes in the basement of the old Lincoln Hotel, that flooded on a semi-regular basis. I still learned English and Public Speaking. The new Williamson Business School had just opened up, and everyone was thrilled. It was a multi-story beauty that had air-conditioning!!!!!! We were so happy!

Now it is moving across the street to a multimillion dollar new facility, because what was wonderful in 1968 is now crap in 2009. Again, there is that 40 – 50 year life cycle for a university building. The new one will be nice, though!!

Oh ya!!! They are going to tear down the Lincoln Avenue deck, which we were also thrilled to get because of lack of parking when it was built about 40 years ago. They claim it is cheaper to tear down than to repair it. Who knows…but it will eliminate a bunch of needed parking spaces.

Oh well, the good news is that as long as the educational institutions are building buildings...Obama can spend his stimulus on things like Nancy Pelosi's mice. Maybe they need a student union.