Chopped. | The Triangle

Chopped.

James Mariano: The Triangle
James Mariano: The Triangle

Sometimes the things we love disappear without any warning. In the blink of an eye.

Or the span of a day. Valentine’s Day. In the Korman Quad.

Have you peeped inside the fence that blocks off Korman’s construction from public view this week? Because something’s missing.

Someone with a chainsaw took out the American Yellowwood that stood at the base of the hill outside of Disque. They took out the hill too, a few days later, for pete’s sake. Is nothing sacred?

To be honest, we’re a little upset that these upcoming renovations weren’t more widely publicized. Is it too much to ask for Drexel officials hold a public forum where they at least brace us for these changes?

Bear in mind, we’re fully aware that debate slows down progress. When you go to a university like ours where construction companies excrete buildings like they’re on Miralax, it not only doesn’t seem possible, it just doesn’t seem preferable.

But let’s break down what an ideal situation might have been step-by-step. First Drexel gets the donation, right? It’s all announced. Top officials are congratulated for clinching the deal. Drexel takes bids for the project. It awards the bid to whoever the most qualified/most connected/best deal company appears to be, in this case Gluckman Tang. Then it takes off with the planning. Pitch it to Drexel a couple of times over until the people in the big offices plotz and send the orders over to the construction folks.

Now imagine if you added just a few more steps in there.

What if Drexel sent out a letter to the community that outlined the plans it’d decided on afterward? Would that really be so hard, or so bad?

We’re guessing what the university would be afraid of, in releasing specific plans, would be starch opposition. In other words, the less people involved in a project like Korman the easier it is to get ‘er done. The more people, the more ideas, and potentially, the more resistance.

But consider this: it’s a hell of a lot more considerate than tearing up parts of our campus with no warning whatsoever.

And it would certainly be more comforting seeing these changes occur if we had a better idea of what was coming in its place.

Change is a difficult thing for humans to adjust to. It always has been. We’re not saying you can’t change around our campus. We’re just saying that it’d be nice if we at least knew it was happening.