The Hilltop will soon welcome a new building, Grappone Hall, home of the Jean School of Nursing and Health Sciences. What is next? 

I think that there is a space on campus viable for development, although it would require some clearing. Specifically, the forested area between JOA and uppers sits unused. The school should consider putting a new building there; it would be very centralized, surrounded by a sizable amount of dorm buildings, making it a good hub for class spaces. Better yet, the school could use the new building, much like LLC, to house both students and classes together.  

But what kind of building could we see go in this space? This is a perfect opportunity to improve the campus’s art and music departments. A new art and music center would be quite an addition to the campus. For the sake of this article, we’ll call it the Harrington Hall for Art and Music.

On top of this, a new building would be a great way to improve student traffic. Specifically, between Uppers and JOA, there would be a chance to make a direct path between them, making so that students don’t have to walk around the entire block of forest that stands between them and their breakfast. Not to mention that during the winter, there are fewer slick pathways, meaning less chance that people will accidentally hurt themselves walking to class. The school could take this opportunity to install more heated pathways, much like the steps that pass by Gadbois. More heated pathways equal less need for constantly salting the sidewalks with salts that damage the surrounding plant life with their artificial dyes, along with keeping pets safe by being a pet-friendly alternative to rock salt ice melt.  

A new building could also offer new housing for students. The building itself could work like the Living Learning Commons, where there are spaces for both students and classes to coexist. Or, if the school intends for the building to specifically be for classes, then other buildings could be converted to house more students. Once again, referencing the town hall, President Favazza made it known to the audience that there were even more applicants than there were with the Freshman class this year, implying that there may be a population increase for the student body. New housing for students would be a good move for future classes.  

Altogether, I think that a brand-new building would be a good move for the college. It wouldn’t be removing any current buildings, would be a good source of controllable expansion for the school, control student traffic, use school space more effectively, and accommodate to a potentially larger student population.