Projects to pave new pathways and restore the University’s green areas will characterize the next phase of the administration’s multi-million dollar Campus Renewal Plan. While past jobs of the Master Plan have included the massive Chapel/’92 Theater restoration and the new Center for Film Studies on Washington Terrace, focus has fallen more recently on the finer details, such as the poor quality of the campus’ grass.
“A college campus is defined not merely by its buildings but also by its green spaces,” said Justin Harmon, Director of University Communications. “Wesleyan’s students have historically ignored boundaries and limits—not only social limits but physical ones as well such as sidewalks—and all these personal rebellions have taken their toll on our campus.”
Because students trod so frequently off pathways, said Harmon, the University’s grassy areas are frequently muddy or dusty, dying or dead, and generally unattractive, and this drab look hinders the University’s ability to attract top-rate applicants and faculty. For this reason, the administration has decided tear down the tall fences that have been protecting Wesleyan’s tender shoots of grass and replace the grass with a durable, Astroturf-like material called “NewGrass.”
“NewGrass will save money—no more fencing, mowing, or watering—and aesthetically enhance the campus’ appearance,” Harmon said.
Harmon admitted that NewGrass is scratchy to the touch and very uncomfortable to sit on, but assured that the overall effect would be an improvement over what he called Wesleyan’s “slipshod misery of a lawn.” NewGrass will be rolled out over all of Foss Hill and in front of College Row starting May 5.
Though the NewGrass’ tough texture will probably end a long-time student habit of relaxing on the Hill and has elicited some student protests that grounds crews will be fired because it requires so little maintenance, a survey administered by the WSA to 100 University students and faculty showed overall positive reaction.
“I walk on the lawn as much as I can,” wrote one student. “The sidewalks try to limit where and when I may move my body. I express my creativity in this life by choosing my own road.”
“There’s a distinct lack of green, of grass, of trees on campus,” reported another survey.
“I just want campus to look pretty,” wrote Interim Dean of Student Services Peter Patton.
In another effort to accommodate students’ varied walking habits, the University will also add two diagonal pathways in front of Olin library to augment the two straight and rather inutile existing sidewalks.
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