Our campus is best described as 'sprawling.' Much of the student body comes from suburban areas, and so is used to suburban sprawl, but what they need to realize is that this kind of unchecked development is the reason why our planet is getting warmer at an alarming rate. Every individual has an impact on the world around him or her.
	I guess the conclusion to be drawn is that people need to think about what they're doing and the consequences of their actions. This includes everyone. Pedestrians need to look where they're going. The same goes for bikers. Even high school kids, the prospective future students of this fine university, need to think about whether going to school here is really worth the trouble of getting around. But, most importantly, the people making decisions affecting the future of this school (and the rest of the world) need to think about whether what they're doing is benefiting anyone, or simply helping to make them more wealthy. The school is currently working on a new 60 million-dollar law building, the Lewis Katz building, and is spending 9 million on an adjacent arboretum. These are across from my old home in Stuart hall, and extend the campus by at least another quarter-mile, not including parking lots. Construction of an enormous science building is set to begin in July of this year. The sports fields that were the last open space between East halls and the rest of campus have been torn up and are being prepared for construction of this building. Rumor has it that in the future the Bryce Jordan Center will be the center of campus. The center of campus. This would make the scale of this university campus almost inconceivable. Does it really need to be that big? Most of the people that these developments will affect don't bother to ask these questions, or even know what their school is doing.
	How would a designated bike path help the school and the community at large? By itself, it wouldn't. It would require the participation of the people who have to travel on campus. In other words, kids would have to use bikes. One of my friends recently bought a bike, but stopped using it because the campus is too hilly and he was afraid he would crash into someone on the street. Even if you forget about bicyclists, the kids who walk up and down Pollock road every day have a hard time getting around when it snows. Every time I go out I see people slip and fall in the snow and slush. An enclosure over the road and its sidewalks would greatly reduce this problem. And as long as they're building a roof over it, why not make it into a raised, enclosed pathway? They already built one over Shortlidge Road between two buildings, the Chemistry and Life Sciences buildings. It would be well within the school's budget to do this. 