Throughout the past two semesters, students have been taking detours on their way to class due to construction around Gorgas and other buildings on the north side of the Quad. These detours are worth the extra time and effort, as it is a temporary inconvenience that would lead to the revitalization of these buildings for classes and other academic and administrative ends.
However, students were shocked to find that sidewalks they use every day to go to classes near the recently completed Oliver-Barnard Hall were torn out and replaced by sod. It is such a recent change that you can see where these paths used to be, because the sod is distinct from the ground around it. This path is also still recognized by the University’s official map and its official plans for sidewalks and transportation on campus.
Students could just walk where the sidewalks formerly were — and many students do — but this is very inconvenient. Because of the sod in place, there is a point along this path that has been muddy throughout the semester and could easily ruin students’ shoes, especially during rain showers.
This change adds minutes in walking time to those coming to and from ten Hoor Hall, the English Building, Bidgood Hall or Rowand-Johnson Hall. This extra time adds up throughout the semester and can be the difference between getting to class on time and being late. Wesley Allahham, a sophomore at the University, has two classes in ten Hoor on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He expressed how, due to these sidewalks being removed, he risks being late for class in the 10 minutes he has to get across campus between classes.
“The removal of the sidewalk heading to it makes my walk significantly longer if I don’t cut through the grass, and I risk being late for class,” he said. “I usually cut through because of this.” Finally, he explained how, if he had the opportunity to make his voice heard with President Bell or other Alabama faculty, he would “show how inconvenient this is for many students and how it has done little for the University to have removed the sidewalk.”
Renovations on campus should make students’ lives easier. Though the past year of renovations around Gorgas Library was inconvenient, it was toward an end to expand usable space within the library. Removing this sidewalk does not seem temporary, nor does it make students’ lives on campus easier.
There exists a phenomenon called desire paths, which are man made paths that form from people wearing their own way around obstacles. Many people will use these unpaved paths to save time. Eventually, due to the constant walking, the ground will become a dirt path where plants can’t grow. This happened on campus between Ridgecrest South and Blount Hall, and the University has since paved it.
This should happen again where these removed sidewalks were. All students who benefit from these quicker paths should be able to continue using them. Eventually, the area that used to have sidewalks will become a desire path and will show the University that the students want these sidewalks back. This may lead to them being paved once again.
Until then, students should call upon their representatives in the SGA, especially those in the College of Arts and Sciences and Culverhouse College of Business — colleges with buildings located near the new stretches of sod — to repave these sidewalks. All of your senators’ contact information can be found on the SGA’s website. It is imperative for senators in these colleges to support repaving these paths if they want to be elected in the spring, as this would show they support the voices of the students. It is clear that repaving these sidewalks would directly benefit those in these colleges — the senators’ voters — and we must make our voices heard.
