When I returned to Troy in early August, I wasn’t expecting many changes. Mostly, I was excited for the construction of the new buildings to finally be done, so when I saw the lagoon completely drained, it was nothing short of an unexpected slap in the face.
My first thought at the sight of this new development was “When did this happen?” This thought was immediately followed by “What the heck did they do with the turtles that lived there?”
Turns out, the university is renovating the lagoon in a large landscaping project to not only improve the quality of the lagoon itself but to also give the lagoon a new look, including it in Janice Hawkins Cultural Park.
Okay, fine, that doesn’t answer my question about the turtles, but I can get behind that.
Then, I walked into Trojan Center on the first day of classes and was met with new renovations to Chick-fil-A. They’ve added new kiosks to make ordering less of a hassle, but they also added a giant logo where a drink machine used to be.
The logo was absolutely not necessary. Considering the drink machines in Trojan Center either don’t have ice, don’t have the drink you want or just flat out don’t work half the time, getting rid of one was not their best idea -not to mention that the giant Chick-fil-A logo is an eyesore, if you ask me. How much was the university paid for this colorless, unneeded advertisement? Chick-fil-A is arguably the most popular place in TC, so why do we need to advertise it further?
The kiosks, while they’re a good idea on paper, have already had their struggles. It hadn’t even been two weeks of school when I noticed that they were out of order one night.
All of these renovations and new additions to campus have me wondering why the university is putting money towards this. The new buildings were necessary, and I can see the benefits of the lagoon’s makeover, but there are so many existing buildings that are in desperate need of repair.
While the university spends Lord knows how much on Chick-fil-A, our older buildings are in disarray. Malone Hall, for example, has needed new facilities for years!
I’m a firm believer in practicality above beauty; the university should be putting money towards improving and replacing our older buildings with newer facilities. Despite this, they focus on spending thousands of dollars to make unnecessary “improvements” to the looks of campus.
While I can appreciate the efforts, the university’s priorities are certainly out of order, if you ask me. I’m sure I’m not the only one with this sentiment, either.
Seriously though, what did they do with the turtles?
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