With Parade Day behind us and spring in the air, Binghamton University could use a bit of sprucing up. While we don’t have the money or patience for another multimillion-dollar extended construction project, we do have a few simple ideas that could really give our campus a face-lift and reel in some fresh energy for the new season.
First, there’s the ramp between the Engineering Building and Glenn G. Bartle Library. It’s a depressing slab of concrete, almost as depressing as the Engineering Building. It looks like it belongs in an airport hangar. We say, paint it green. We could call it the green ramp. It could be a thing. If (when) it rains, it would look darker green instead of a gross gray. This would inject a little school spirit into the heart of campus, which we’re all about, right? Why stop at Green Fridays?
Next we have Bartle, arguably the one place in which every student will spend some time. Greek life comprises a little over 10 percent of our student body, yet their flags hang prominently in the Bartle lobby. This is simply a strange choice of location to celebrate our Greek life. We may be burning some bridges here, but we say the Greek flags should be taken down. It’s not that we don’t want to recognize Greek life, but there are other aspects of campus that are more inclusive. Why not celebrate our international students and programs by hanging the national flags of students who attend BU?
We’d also like to see more murals across campus. Murals are a particularly attractive option to spruce things up because they enable students to get involved in adding their own mark. There are plenty of empty walls in the Fine Arts Building and Old University Union that would look great with some student-created work. Both of the hallways connecting the New and Old Unions are boring, almost sterile. Why not have students get hands-on experience by beautifying these hallways? It’s good for building community morale, and sounds like more fun than another Saturday spent watching Netflix. Murals are special because they can highlight the campus’ unique character. One of the things we love the most about our school is how student-driven it can be; let’s celebrate that by rounding up students to get creative with paint and school spirit.
It’s March, which means several more long weeks until the sun comes out and we can all be happy again. Let’s get to work on some of these face-lifts and come spring, when the hookahs and jorts re-emerge, we’ll have something more to Instagram than the Nature Preserve.