This week I attended the design charrette, with the goal of providing feedback for a potential redesign of west campus. The experience was enlightening in multiple ways, not the least of which I realized how much I wasn’t considering. Almost all of my focus went into simple aesthetic projects and possibly getting west campus students involved in maintaining a handful of garden boxes. Things like lighting and study spaces genuinely never crossed my mind, and seeing how other students approached these design challenges was enlightening in many ways. I deeply appreciated seeing how other students approached the project.

Moreover, the project got me thinking about the Rose community on west campus. As great as Rose Scholars is, it’s still very hard for me to participate in a lot of events. With undue frequency they conflict with prior commitments I had, leaving me to watch the friday film more than I’d like to. Something like an early morning gardening project would be a great addition to the kinds of events that Rose scholars could participate in, and would be a way to beautify the west campus, as per the goal of this project.