When I started my sophomore year of high school, I felt like a freshman again. That was because my school had substantially renovated its campus, meaning that more than half of the building was brand new when school started in September.
Our faculty advisers led their advisee groups in tours around the new facilities, but it took me much more than that one introduction to feel like I knew my way around the school. I routinely got lost. I could count on walking out of the new stairwell and entering the wrong floor. This shouldn't be happening anymore, I would grumble. Since I'd advanced to sophomore year, I didn't think I still deserved to feel disoriented at school.
Now, having started my second year at Brown, those bewildered feelings came stampeding back when I encountered the new campus center in Faunce House. For example, when I try to leave the building, I almost always go out the wrong door and end up on Waterman Street when I'm aiming for the Main Green, or vice versa. I've found it's nearly impossible to gracefully recover by pretending I'd intended to stand outside the door for a few seconds, stare at my surroundings in confusion and then go back inside.
This confusion might help explain why, at a meeting for a student group where we went around in a circle and introduced ourselves, I accidentally said I was a freshman. Maybe it helps explain why I did the same thing at a discussion section, too.
Still, while the new construction might be disorienting at first, I know it's an improvement. I enjoy having the campus center as an appealing option for studying and socializing, and so do many other students. Moreover, the new Blue Room is vastly more convenient now, thanks to its expanded hours and the fact that we can sometimes pay with meal credits.
Another encouraging aspect of the construction is process-related. According to a Herald article describing the new facility ("Coffee and couches: New campus center debuts," Sept. 1), "five main priorities" for the space "came out of the discussions during community forums and planning committee meetings." Students and staff had opportunities to suggest the need for longer Blue Room hours and a community space for casual gatherings.
On Brown Dining Services' website, they boast, "You asked. We listened," when they list the improvements to the Blue Room, demonstrating that the administration is pleased with its responsiveness to community demand.
Personally, I don't remember being invited to participate in any of those "community forums" — but then again, they might have taken place before my freshman year, or maybe I just don't read Brown Morning Mail announcements carefully enough. Still, the University's apparent use of community engagement as a step in setting its priorities is reassuring.
A similar example of a transparent, inclusive process is the creation of Brown's new website. The Herald recently reported that, during the two-year development process, "designers and administrators distributed online surveys and publicized decisions on a redesign blog" ("After years, U. website gets facelift," Sept. 8). The new design reflects the input of more than 1,800 online survey participants.
Changes such as the revamped website, the new Blue Room and a campus center certainly can be great improvements. In general, while change can be jarring, its arrival can be made easier when the people it affects can clearly see the reasons behind it and feel as if their input has been considered in the process.
Allowing for generous amounts of public input also helps foster trust between the administration and the rest of the community. Recent opinions columns in The Herald have sparred over the intentions of President Ruth Simmons and the Corporation ("Brown, Inc.," Sept. 10 and "In defense of Brown, Inc.," Sept. 13).
According to columnist Simon Liebling '12, the new construction projects are "evidence of an administrative addiction out of control" — he says that the University is "callous" to pursue renovation while laying off workers and increasing tuition.
Whether or not Liebling's impression is accurate, the fact that he, and presumably others, feel so alienated by the administration means that the University ought to make its intentions clearer and somehow let students and staff feel more invested in changes around campus.
For me at least, I know that I can feel like less of a newcomer or outsider when I know that I have and that I can play a part in developing my community.
