In a move that has come as a surprise to the general student body, it was reported this past week that the Oval will likely remain closed for the spring this year. No longer will students be able to relax and enjoy the warm spring weather on campus’ favorite gathering spot.
The Oval is the heart of campus and an essential component of being a Buckeye. It is a place where students can relax with their friends, see alumni walking around and pointing out old sights to their families and enjoy being outside of a classroom.
But because the university is undergoing an unparalleled amount of construction, it was decided that the Oval would also fall under the ax and receive a facelift. But the university found problems when it started to move forward with plans to close the Oval during spring quarter.
This controversial issue has been around since last winter, when it was announced the Oval would be closed for spring quarter last year. Students took action and raised enough of a commotion that Coca-Cola – in a beautiful public relations move – donated more than $200,000 to delay the construction until the end of summer quarter.
The original plan was for 40 percent of Oval to be closed during spring quarter, and then the following 60 percent would be closed over the summer. The first 40 percent would then be open by this spring. That way OSU students would never had to deal with a spring without it. But by pushing the construction back a quarter the date of finalization was pushed back a quarter as well.
Unfortunately, no one got that message out to the student body, who reacted angrily to the idea of being deprived of the Oval. Thousands of Buckeyes signed the petition to save the Oval under the belief that it would not affect spring quarter of 2005.
Who, save last year’s graduating seniors, would have signed a petition to simply delay the construction for a year?
The reason the Oval will remain inaccessible for this upcoming spring is the weather of this past summer. The heavy rains that came as a result of the recent hurricanes impeded the seeding of new grass and pushed back the timetable for opening the Oval.
Students cannot have their cake and eat it, too. They were successful in postponing the contstruction last year, but now that the weather has pushed back the reopening date we cannot complain about not having the Oval this year.
Or can they? The student body was never informed of the possibility that if construction was delayed last spring it would affect this coming spring. Students thought the time lost from delaying construction last spring could be made up by completely closing the Oval last summer.
Apparently this is not the case, and as a result of this miscommunication the student body will be forced to endure a spring without an Oval. The class of 2005 wishes to thank those who ruined its last spring here at OSU.
