To the editor,
This UND administration seems determined to make the campus more unfriendly to the community and its visitors. The recent closing Centennial Drive between Twamley Hall and Gamble Hall is just plain crazy. Closing streets makes visitor access worse, confusing drivers and forcing them onto back roads, which are bewildering. Why make it difficult to get to the Museum of Art?
Why is the traffic such a problem now, when nearly a fourth of the students are totally online and not on campus? Pedestrian and vehicle traffic should be considerably less. There has been no news of accidents with student pedestrians. This seems to be another poor decision.
Several buildings have been demolished along University Avenue in the last couple of weeks just as students are returning, when you want the campus looking its best. There are dirt piles, orange fences and messiness over several blocks. The news to tear them down came in January. Why wait until just before school starts? This does not seem to he the right thing to do.
It was wrong to demolish the International Center, where hundreds of international students and the community would gather together. The center was forced into too little space that is not friendly to students or community members. The donor of their Lotus Center was not informed the center would be demolished. She read about that in the Herald. Is this how UND treats donors?
One excuse given was there was some mold in the basement. The solution for mold is a bottle of bleach and sealing the cracks, not demolition. This was a terrible decision.
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UND has a long history of offering community members learning opportunities through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, which is supported by course fees and memberships. Wonderful OLLI courses are taught by current or retired professors and professionals from the community. The UND administration decided to cancel the program next February. UND administrators say it is because of budget cuts. UND's costs for OLLI could not be much and could easily be subsidized or helped to be self-sufficient. OLLI members feel abandoned.
There are so many poor decisions being made by the administration that hurt students and the community. I have lost all confidence in these administrators.
Mae Marie Blackmore
Grand Forks
