Going into the Café Talk Board of Trustees, I admit I didn’t really know much or think about how the Board of Trustees affected my life or the lives of my peers. After attending, I definitely came away understanding more about what the Board of Trustees does for Cornell and for the students. The specific conversation that most interested me was that of the Balch renovation. I lived in Balch my freshman year and I really loved it. It seems like the Board of Trustees is really considering all aspects of the effect of renovation. Coincidentally, I met a freshman living in Balch earlier today and found out that because of the future large scale renovation, maintenance is not really taking minor requests at the moment. If something is not urgent, it probably won’t get fixed. I wonder if the university is aware that this is a bit of an issue for the current residents of Balch (disclaimer: it could just be one instance that I happened to come across).
Renovations aside, I think it’s interesting that the renovation of Balch and the North Campus expansion might increase incoming class sizes in the future. Finding an apartment in collegetown is cutthroat. An increase in class size by several hundreds would definitely put a strain on that already very stressful experience for students, an experience that sometimes causes a lot of tears and even ends friendships. Overall, the Board of Trustees Café Talk definitely opened my eyes to a lot of the future issues that Ithaca may experience with changes happening on campus.
This is awesome to see! I also lived on North last year and it’s great to learn about the renovation! What exactly are they doing?
I lived in Balch my freshman year and I can definitely vouch for the fact it needs renovations! I didn’t think about the current residents and how they must be affected by the maintenance. Just another example of something I wouldn’t have thought of with all this construction!
I lived on North last year (as most of us did) and had many friends in Balch (I was in Dickson). I was actually talking to a freshmen today, and she said that they start construction at 6 every morning–causing everyone to wake up prematurely. Yikes! I didn’t even think about maintenance, which is crucial in the older dorms. I hope Cornell addresses this.