Now, I don’t want to develop a reputation as a complainer, and there certainly is a lot to like about the new nursing building, but something really must be done about its roof. That is because the current state of the roof, which I would imagine many of you, as I once did, believe to be unfinished (on account of the fact that it looks unfinished) is, I kid you not, its intended final form.

Granted, I have no doubt that this roof will function properly from an engineering perspective, and that this design probably saved the college some money which could then be spent on other cool things. That is all well and good. However, from an aesthetic perspective it is actually so bad that I would propose it is worth spending the extra money to resolve the situation, by closing in the roof on the side of the building that faces Saint Anselm Drive. I would encourage you to take a walk along that road bearing our college’s name, and, from those angles, to ponder the fact that if we don’t change course, the nursing building will look like that for the rest of its time standing.

Whenever I am out there myself, the view reminds me of the fact that it is a corporal work of mercy to clothe the naked. In that vein, our college community is to the new nursing building as the rich man was to Lazarus, on account of how blithely we ignore such a glaring need on our very own doorstep. Indeed, we have sent that poor young structure up to face the world without enough attire to preserve itself from shame. Its delicate HVAC units are exposed to the jeers and gawking of every passerby, for it is not as though the uncovered side faces a forest – the uncovered side faces the road! It is among the first things seen when entering out campus! And we allow this to persist!

This at a college that prides itself on the advancement of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. This at a college that requires its students to take classes on aesthetics. For shame! But I digress. The point is, I think it would be pretty cool if we could enclose that side of the roof.