MSU should seek student input on campus projects

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Though we may only be here for four (or five or six) years, we, as students, feel we have the right to be involved in certain decisions about our campus. Recently, students were informed of plans to construct a public art piece in the courtyard between Snyder-Phillips and Mason-Abbot halls, and we want to know where our input was during this decision making process.

As students in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities, or RCAH, we certainly have nothing against public art. In fact, we’d like to see more of it on campus. Our problem is not so much with the statue itself — though we would prefer something other than a 26-foot-tall abstract metal structure — but with the process of making the decision.

As anyone who has visited The Gallery in Snyder-Phillips Hall knows, this courtyard is not unused space. During the warmer months, it is home to basketball and volleyball games, sunbathers and Frisbee players. This is part of what gives our complex a community feel — it’s the perfect spot for students to mingle and enjoy the natural beauty of their campus, uninterrupted by massive metallic diversions.

We understand that there is an MSU rule stating that 0.5 percent of the cost of all major renovations should be used on public art. In fact, we think it’s a great statute. But we think spending $150,000 on a gigantic sculpture that not only will disrupt student space but also will be visually unappealing simply isn’t what the rule was meant to accomplish.

What about using that money to establish a courtyard garden? Proposals for four gardens — one in each courtyard of Snyder and Phillips halls, not the most popular courtyard in front of The Gallery — have been written by RCAH faculty and students. They are supplemented by detailed plans laid out by landscape architecture students and would create ongoing opportunities for student involvement. Each garden has a theme, and we propose that the “outdoor classroom” garden be constructed instead of this tower of steel. It certainly would qualify under the university’s rule. After all, if a beautiful open garden isn’t art, then what is?

With this proposal, the $150,000 would be used for something MSU students designed and would help maintain; it would create a new learning space and it wouldn’t disturb one of the most popular social spaces in our complex.

If not a garden, what about student-made work? The money could be used to buy supplies for the artwork, as well as provide scholarships for the student or students who design and create the art. Right now, only 30 percent of students remain on campus from freshman to sophomore year, but studies show that when students take an active role in their living space, they are much more likely to stay there. In addition to keeping more students on campus, there would be increased collaboration among students, faculty and staff, and eventually greater financial support from alumni.

While we are more than likely too late to stop the construction of this statue, we want the university to know that procedures like this help lead to student divestment in the residence hall system and the campus in general. Students have made a huge investment in this institution, and we want our voices heard.

RCAH Council

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