As a student at Fairfield University, when I headed back to campus after a long winter break, I was greeted with two parts of the campus to be unaccessible. Construction trucks scattered the walkways and the once bright, green grass was replaced by mounds of dirt. I was shocked to see my once beautiful campus being torn up, but I knew I was excited for the big changes that were coming.

As the 75th year of Fairfield University kicks off, new plans to expand our dining hall are in session. The Barone Campus Center is under construction, expanding the Oak Room and the dining hall, and some existing facilities are being improved as well. This expansion is going to give the faculty, students and staff more options, including a station preparation where students can watch the chefs making their food, an allergen-free zone with access to an isolated allergy-free area, new seating options that have access to electrical outlets and movable tables and more space to hold campus events. I believe this will be a great new aspect to the dining hall, giving students more options for food and seating.

Although the addition that is underway will create a great new dining space, there are cons in the meantime. I am woken by construction trucks at 8 a.m. during the week and the campus is harder to navigate around. I can constantly hear trucks driving around and as construction is drawn out, it will just get more annoying. Also, our once spacious dining hall has been downsized to fewer tables, making the Oak Room an overflow space for when there are no more open tables. Although I have my reasons for disliking the construction, overall I am happy that we have the opportunity to expand our campus. That being said, although students may be complaining now about the construction, we all know it is worth it for the end result.  In the fall of 2017, the new BCC, which will now be named “The Tully,” will open its doors to the students. I am excitedly awaiting the grand opening of the new BCC.

The construction can be annoying to wake up to, but I do not believe that the campus should have waited to start when students were not on campus. Students still have access to the BCC during the beginning of construction and it would be hard for the college to do construction during a period where no one was on campus. I excitedly wait to come back to school in the fall to see the new BCC, and until then I will have to respect the cons that the construction brings. While the construction can be annoying at times, the final product will be well worth the wait.  

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  1. David Orintas Class of 1964

    Is any of the massive amounts of money being spent on buildings going to be spent on expanding the library, adding the number of books? Is any of the money being spent on biology, chemsitry and physics labs ? Is any of the money being spent on Catholic Studies and the expansion of the number of courses added ? Is any of the money being spent on setting up research institutes relative to various academic programs ? In none of the plans for 2020 have I seen any mention of expenditures, above and beyond the usual budget, being spent on the items listed above. If I am wrong, please publish what these expanded academic programs are.

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