Are facilities coping?

By Editorial

The addition of the largest freshman class in school history could be stressing some resources, or at least providing a dark omen of events that should not come to pass.

Last week's issue featured an article which discussed the resource pressure the new freshman class has been creating in popular student areas like Market Square.

The Santa Clara believes that by admitting more students, the university holds an obligation to correspondingly and preemptively increase the occupancy of services and facility space.

Although Facilities Director Jeff Charles and Assistant Vice President of Operations Joe Sugg have not received any reports or complaints related to congestion or overuse of facilities, some students, as quoted in last week's article, have been unhappy with the longer lines in Market Square.

Charles commented that "as the school grows, the school has a good future look on things and they plan accordingly."

Charles also added that the university's plans to expand the library and the creation of the RLC commons by Dunne, Swig, and McLaughlin were evidence of this forward-looking stance.

But while the university is looking towards grandiose projects like our delayed library, students have been waiting in longer food lines.

As reported in last week's article, Bon Appetite's General Manager, Lori Flashner, says that campus food service has increased by 500 students.

Spread out over a day during different times, this increase might not seem earth-shattering. But compressed into a single, popular lunch time, the 500 more students mean longer lines, colder food, and poorer service.

The Santa Clara calls on the university to continue looking for creative ways to expand resources for students. Placing more stress on critical resources from the Market Square to the Cowell Student Health Center, which had the most appointments in school history last year, can have irksome affects on the entire student body, a student body that chose Santa Clara over state "pack-em-in" universities.

While no state of emergency presently exits, signs of resource overuse should be monitored carefully to make certain that the goals of the university are continually being met. The longer wait time in Benson might not be cause for protest, but they do raise some questions about university student services.