Ottawa University’s campus received a few physical changes in the weeks during and after spring break.
Not to be confused for any kind of construction work, workers laid concrete in spots that were deemed unacceptable.
“They were replacing areas outside where people could slip and fall or hurt themselves,” Ottawa University Provost Dennis Tyner said.
Areas of concern were in front of Ward Science Hall, the walkway from the administration building to Atkinson Hall, an area in front of the Mowbray Union and a pathway in front of Brown Hall.
“The point was to choose areas that are the worst,” Tyner said. “Some were broken up pretty badly, and some had large cracks. Elevation of the concrete also caused easy problems.”
Tyner said not all areas that needed improvement were attended to, but ones they felt needed the most help were fixed.
Freshman Carley Bonnett felt that there wasn’t really a good enough reason to do the work that was done, especially during the school year when there’s only a couple weeks of school left.
“I honestly have no idea why they fixed it in the first place unless it was just because it was old and needing replacing,” she said. “If that was the reason, it wasn’t too bad but they could have waited until the summer to fix it.”
Freshman Keith Love is distracted at times, particularly while he was in class.
“Sometimes I could hear the guy on a jackhammer outside drilling in the middle of class, and it made it hard for me to pay attention,” he said.
Love also didn’t understand why there wasn’t some kind of notice to students about the activity.
“I figured the administration would have informed us about this some way, but maybe it wasn’t that important,” he said. “I didn’t necessarily think the changes needed to be done because I never saw anything obvious, but they do these things for a reason.”