Lily Charkow, Arts & Life Editor–
When Denison University’s administration announced that they would be turning East Quad into a first-year quad, the student body was up in arms. Upperclassmen students were suddenly revoked of a wide variety of housing options that they had previously been promised.
When the news first broke, students were quick to point out the various downsides of the first-year quad. Some of these downsides include, but are not limited to: lack of suite options for housing, returning students living in first-year residence halls, and an increasingly hectic parking situation.
For students who are living on east quad, parking has become scarce. Students often have to circle around the parking lot numerous times before eventually finding a spot. The parking lot beside Silverstein apartments, which used to consistently have open spots, is constantly filled to the brim with vehicles. Students have no choice but to park in the lot beside Mitchell Athletic Center, which is not relatively close to East Quad. This dilemma with parking adds to a list of reasons for why the first-year quad is a poor plan, and it adds to a long list of grievances that causes returning students to feel unappreciated by the administration.
Recent changes to campus continue to inconvenience the daily lives of returning students. Before classes for the fall semester began, the university announced that Curtis Dining Hall would no longer be open on weekend mornings. However, Huffman Dining Hall will continue to be open for weekend breakfast. But this decision is another indirect hit to morale for returning Denison students.
I understand that weekend breakfasts at dining halls have low attendance rates and keeping them open could waste money, but it is ironic that the university decided to keep open the dining hall that is closest to the first-year quad. Returning Denison students feel unappreciated; they have every right to feel that way given the circumstances. I understand the decision to create the first-year quad as a way to unite the first-years as a community, but returning students also deserve to be respected by the administration.
Lily Charkow ‘27 is a creative writing major and journalism minor from Oak Park, Illinois.