September at Fairfield: The new and improved cafeteria is jammed, the lines in the bookstore weave in and out of aisles, StagBuses fly down the streets and the Quad is finally bustling.’
But for all Quad residents this year, there is a little more than just some ‘happy-go-lucky’ bustling.
Try some serious construction!
Gone are the days of waking up to birds chirping or a car alarm. Instead, it’s the rumble of loud dump trucks, the reverse beep of landscaping carts and the jackhammer at 6:30 in the morning.
The Quad has come a long way since June’s summer orientation, but there is still much work to be done, forcing students to wake up much earlier than they wish.
In the end, however, the disruption will be worth it, as the area around the dorms will be beautiful and fun to be in.
The Quad we knew before may have been functional, but it had its flaws: unused sidewalks that led to nowhere, dirt paths through bushes and a mini-forest outside of Regis. Rain left behind three days worth of mud and uneven ground was not desirable when trying to lay out in the sun.
Fortunately, for the Class of 2012, they will never need deal with those issues, as they bring along with them a new era of the Quad.
Colored bricks line the pathways, which actually now make sense and a grassy knoll in the middle provides a place to sit with a elevated view.
But, of course, as the old problems are trying to be fixed, new ones are arising.
As of now, any Loyola sophomore with a car on campus that parks in the Regis lot is forced to walk through Regis, rather than all the way around.
Freshmen in Campion now walk around the front of Loyola in the road, putting themselves in the line of fire every time a car takes that corner.
Construction vehicles near the softball field have cut down on parking space for the sophomore residents of the Quad. And gone is a path from Loyola’s side exit that points towards the Barone Campus Center.
‘ Lazy Ignatians on their way to Bannow, Kostka, Claver or the library are now forced to make a tough decision: go out of the way near the ‘oh, wasn’t this supposed to be a fountain?’ tree enclosure, or go around the traffic circle and cut through the BCC.’
The sod that was just put down is already turning to mud as students continue to follow their own paths, instead of sticking to the sidewalks.
‘ Maybe if the sprinklers actually sprayed ON the sod and not at students on the sidewalk, we would actually see nice looking grass.
On a side note: The next time workers decide to empty the portable toilets near Campion, they might want to consider alerting the residents in the area, so they can shut their windows.
Despite the early morning wake-up calls, the change in walking patterns and, perhaps, the smells, the Quad construction will really make a beautiful end result and will make Fairfield look that much more appealing.
This is just one of many new projects that our school is working on, and many students couldn’t be more excited to see these great changes ahead.
But in the meantime, Quaddies, invest in those earplugs and keep walking that much more out of the way.
The outcome is sure to be impressive, but when people say ‘it will be done soon,” it really means a couple of weeks in Fairfield lingo.
Here’s to not needing an alarm clock, and being up the same time as the cross-country team!
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