The new student union will be open soon. Woot! Technically, however, it’s not a student union, but a “university center.” So, we dropped the clams to build that post-modernist heap of granite and glass, shouldn’t our name be there along side the Muensters’? Sarcasm aside, the new MUC will, I repeat, will revitalize this university.
Right now, USD is dead, and the MUC is just what this campus needs.
Go ahead, Laugh. Sounds like I’ve taken a massive gulp of the U dot Kool-Aid, right? Rest assured that is far from the case; however, I am right.
We have been waiting years for this building. Some of us, anyway.
The old Coyote Student Center was razed the summer of 2006, the summer I moved to Vermillion. Actually, I was quite glad to see that building planned for replacement. Yet, having spent some time at another university with a centrally located Memorial Union, I was concerned about the campus experience. My concerns were proven. This has lacked soul–a soul that only a bustling student center can provide.
Freshmen and sophomores stay on the north end of campus. Juniors and seniors only come to campus for class, then go back to their apartments and houses. Those that do spend the day on campus for different events or happenings are only those actually participating. Currently, a student has to greatly go out of their way to partake in campus events.
With the MUC, we will be able to congregate in open spaces with our friends and fellow classmates. We will actually know where the SGA offices are and maybe who our SGA officers are. Student organizations will have a place to show off their groups and host events. Additionally, there will be a place on campus to eat.
This is just a short list, but the main point here is that the human circulation on this campus will once again return. Instead of just showing up for classes-when we show up for classes-we will stay and hang out. Maybe some of us will even stick around for the weekend, possibly taking our cloths out of the suitcase.
With students on campus, more students will be cognizant of the concerns of the student body. We might even pay more attention to what the university administration may be up to-nefarious or otherwise. Along that same line, maybe the administration officials will come out of the Slagle office and get to know the very students they are meant to serve.
The last three years have been a painful slumber. Some of you don’t mind the sleep. You’re only here for a few years and the quicker you can leave Vermillion, the better. Yet, college is supposed to be more than classes. A small percentage of the student body has rebuffed the repose. We have chugged back an extra Red Bull and tried to make our USD experience noteworthy, both for ourselves and our fellow Yotes. Now, it’s time to throw back the covers and bring the life back to this storied institution. A new age at USD is dawning. Take advantage of the MUC. It may not say student on the facade, but that building is yours. This university is yours. Reclaim it as such!
Mr. Whitesock,
After reading one of the very few newsworthy articles in last week’s issue of ‘The Volante’, I happened to stumble across a particularly egregious error that you wrote in your Opinion blog. You stated that the new Muenster University Center is a “post-modernist heap of granite and glass.” This statement is only partly true. Yes, it is post-modernist (and rather atrocious-looking I might add), however it is in fact not made of granite. That pink cut stone that you are seeing is a very unique type of stone, it is Sioux Quartzite, which it just so happens is not even the same type of rock as granite. The Sioux Quartzite is a stone quarried in and around the Sioux Falls area, and it was formed from an ancient sandstone underlying this region. You don’t need to be an Earth Sciences major like myself in order to know that, you would just have to do a little research to get your facts straight. You sound rather like a typical journalist to me, making assumptions about something and calling that enough because you really don’t care weather or not it is true or factual, only if it makes it your opinion sound good (the alliteration was a nice touch).
Mr. Lacey,
Thanks for the response and the supposed clarification, but as you astutely point out, I was using the phrasing of “granite and glass” for effect. If you have read anything that I’ve written about the new University Center, you would know that I’m not ignorant to the materials used in the building. For instance, this opinion column (http://www.volanteonline.com/2.7412/1.1165357-1.1165357), which I wrote last semester, actually details the history of the stone used with Old Main and how the stone used on the MUC is a tie to that architectural history.
I am offended by your sweeping accusation of journalists. First and foremost, this is a blog post and the piece was written in an essay style. My facts are correct. I have done the research. Next time, however, I will provide footnotes to my writings to keep things clear, because writing with style, is of course, disallowed in journalism.
So now journalists can fudge the facts on purpose if it is in the name of “effect.” That’s news to me. This is yet another reason the Volante is such a horrible publication.
David isn’t a journalist. He’s an opinion columnist. He can use “effect” as he chooses.
As for the Volante being a horrible publication, I direct you to the National Pacemaker Award, the award for the best college newspapers in the country. the Volante has won 5 times, including last year.