Constant construction is integral to progress

To borrow a (slightly modified) phrase from the library of overused sayings: Troy was not built in a day.

The endeavor of raising a building does not come without resistance from the forces of gravity, entropy and human error. Therefore, students should consider construction on campus as an improvement rather than an annoyance.

This creation becomes a tug-of-war between those who struggle to see it erected and the innumerable things that can go wrong.

Walking around campus, examples of this struggle can easily be seen. The newest construction project of the USC Catholic Center exemplifies this struggle.

Tremors are felt all around campus and off-campus housing as the growls of jackhammers and heavy machinery spill out from behind the fences.

Sidewalks are invaded, and the noise from construction reverberates all the way to Cardinal Gardens and Century apartments, often waking students early in the morning.

Complaints about construction from students are rife at USC.

Construction can interrupt sleep, it can lengthen walks to class and can blemish sceneries. These catastrophes aside, however, the noises are there for a reason.

The change is good. This university is ever-growing, seeking to improve itself, and these ubiquitous construction projects are a major part of that.

We have to live with them, just like past students did, so the university can continue improving the aesthetic qualities of USC, and the good of the next generation of students.

The pervasive construction on and near campus is a sign of positive change and expansion. It shows we have the resources to keep growing and to improve upon what we already have.

All the beautiful buildings on campus were once annoying construction sites — a recent example, of course, being the Ronald Tutor Campus Center. Just more than a year ago it seemed little more than cause for extra noise and extra walking.

Back then it was hard to picture it as anything more than another inconvenient construction site.

Now fully functional, it has only served to beautify campus and has been well worth the wait.

To get beautiful buildings that also serve an important function, we must bear that inconvenience.

There is no way around it. Some students wish these kinds of major constructions would be confined to times of the year when there aren’t classes or students to disrupt.

Construction takes time. The last thing that the university wants to do is to disrupt classes, but administrators also know the disruptions that occur can be outweighed by the end product if it is delivered successfully.

In the end, construction is something of a shared experience among generations of USC students.

The amount of construction might vary from year to year, but the students who came before us had to live around the construction of all the buildings we use today, just as students who come to USC many years after we have left it will use buildings that we now know only as inconveniences.

Yes, it might be difficult to think of the school around us in such a decade-spanning, organic way.

We usually only consider the university based on how things are immediately affecting us, but the truth is, these buildings will remain long after we leave.

We might need to walk around an extra building to get to class, or get woken up in the morning, but understanding what the construction is for and seeing how beautiful the results can be, can make that walk or lack of sleep a little less frustrating.

 

Daniel Grzywacz is a sophomore majoring in cinematic arts-critical studies. His column “Thoughts From the Quad” runs Wednesdays.