Posted by Mike Biel on January 02, 1998 at 12:28:31:
I read with amazement the article about Temple's proposal to tear down both the Baptist Temple
and Thomas Hall. It shows how far out of touch a university adminstration can get from reality.
I deal with some of the same asanine flights of fancy at my own university. There has been a
loss of enrollment at Temple and their solution is to tear down the oldest looking buildings to
make the campus appear to be brand spanking new. THAT will bring in new
students?????
Temple has a concrete campus, which is about as different from my campus
here in the Kentucky hills as you can imagine. If there is ANYTHING on the Temple campus that
has some grace and charm, it is Thomas Hall and the Baptist Temple. Not those squared off
concrete and cinderblock "modern" buildings. They are vastly underestimating the youth of today
if they think they are as shallow as wanting only new buildings. Having nothing to show of the
heritage of the university does not lead to the confidence that a student has in an establishment
that has stood the test of time.
Remember how we lusted after the thought of "the new
building"? Remember the first time we walked into the office complex in the fall of 67 and saw
the white cinderblock walls, and the row of sterile cellblocks that Blenheim, Dusenbury, and
Roberts had been assigned to? And the colored plexiglas "window" next to the black doors to
give SOME splash of color. This was an IMPROVEMENT over 1947-1949 North Broad where
they each had large, carpeted, comfortable offices???????? And remember a few years later when
they over-increased the staff and enrollment and turned the central room there into Dilbert-type
cubbyholes? Those weren't office, they were doorless gym lockers.
Students realize that this
is just a cover-up. There are other problems and tearing down Temple's heritage and putting up
another cinderblock building is not going to improve enrollment. They're grasping at straws. I
think the administration needs to get out of their well-guarded cloister in Conwell Hall and teach a
few classes and (gasp!) mingle with some students.