So. Students may have noticed the big hole in the ground preventing movement around the north side of Clements Hall. It would appear that the school is renovating the sidewalk there, as well as repairing the water mains.

However, what’s the point of renovating that sidewalk to include handicap access?

The north door of Clements opens to reveal stairs, and nothing else.If a wheelchair can’t make it up the outside two steps, what would make someone think that they could make it up the two steps indoors?

Not only that, but there is already a handicap access on the west side of the building. Admittedly. it’s incredibly long and obnoxious, but it has one major factor in its favor. Namely that it existed already. There is also a handicap ramp on the north side of the building. You know, off that little tiny parking lot there. However, the school doesn’t really have a choice. Since the Americans with Disabilities Act, all new constructions and renovations must be handicap accessible.

Ed Board is sure that during the construction of that legislation, the clause requiring handicap accessibility was put forward with only the best of intentions. But there are so many cases like Clements Hall, in which handicap accessibility is just another factor increasing the cost of construction. Think about it, slanted concrete must be harder to make than normal flat concrete.

There is one benefit to this new, slanty-sidewalk business, and that’s the fact that slantiness can’t collect water, so now we won’t soak our shoes on the way past Clements.

But why was this done in the first place?

Survey says: water mains?

Did anyone notice anything wrong with the water supply in Clements?

In any case Ed Board is resuming its usual bitching. The administration is spending our money, and at the worst possible time. They could have held off on this project until the summer, and it would have been much less of an annoyance. Instead they chose to do it in mid-semester so that the campus would look better for prospective students. Nevermind the fact that there are prospective students here already…

Well, there will certainly never be an end to administrative bungling, at least in our lifetime.