Plans for the McConnell-Dawson tunnel have been around since the 70s; maps cite the Future Site of Physics, constructed in 1977. Construction crews seemed to have dug the space up at least two times. They didn’t bother to put the tunnel in. Fears were that the green space was going to be destroyed; in the great tradition of digging up trees, they replaced several of them with abstract art (art in front of PSEA Library, formerly tree).
In Burnside, they made it more claustrophobic: they’ve installed new doors everywhere and big, ugly, red fire hoses.
Shatner Building has a nice updated lounge. The free phone is still in place (Burnside: disappeared). They got rid of the clock, so now it’s difficult to tell how long you’ve been sleeping.
As someone who lived in the McConnell all-guys section, I resent the guys who can afford living in the newly somewhat-co-ed RVC. After that whole no-caf incident last year, they now have a New Rez style yuppie food court with a limited food plan.
They’ve reversed the insane ban on multi-semester membership at the gym, and you can buy a gym membership on-line. They have yet to fix the gym toilets; some of them have been flushing non-stop for years.
There’s a new fast elevator in McLennan. It thinks the ground floor is somehow a mezzanine, which it clearly is not. The elevator talks at you, and reminds me of HAL. Scary electric shelves have been installed to keep up with the encroaching computer space. I’ll wager someone gets horribly maimed by a moving shelf.
The new “Service Point” has brought the ID cards back to McLennan; I spent hours in the line-up that reached all the way to the Y-intersection. I keep thinking of the MARS lady telling me I suck and then hanging up on me long distance.
Neil Edelman
U3 Physics