old building at the top of Morton Hill.
I just finished reading Kristina Hauptmann's article on the campus eyesore we call The Oasis, and frankly, I am outraged. Don't get me wrong, Kristina herself wrote a lovely article, and did nothing but present the facts; however I still cannot help but feel upset after reading the information that was presented in the article. I am a freshman myself, and have never seen The Oasis as anything more than the gross old building at the top of Morton Hill.
When I saw that the top story in your Tuesday issue was about the ambiguous building, I was more than intrigued. After finishing the article I wish I could forget the information I had read and just think of The Oasis as nothing more than an old building. I don't have that luxury anymore. Now that I have read the article, I have the knowledge that The Oasis is a building with great potential. The sheer laziness and ignorance that our campus authorities possess toward student needs is flat out frustrating.
The fact that The Oasis used to be a dining facility upsets me quite a bit, due to the fact that I am not very happy with the dining hall arrangement here at OU. Not only are most of the dining halls on this campus not open all the time (not very convenient, especially in inclement weather), but the conditions are deplorable. I live on East Green, where dining hall conditions are the worst. Not only is neither of our dining halls open on the weekends, but we receive the worst of both worlds. Jefferson Dining Hall has began a steady slide downhill ever since Shively opened up, and now I feel they have resorted to serving us fewer options that seem like mom's lasagna heated up from last night. So why not go to Shively you ask? Well if one has ever been inside Shively at any given time they would know that it is a cluster (insert profanity here) of students, and you can't even enjoy your meal, because others are watching you like vultures waiting to shove seven people at your three-person table.
Having another dining option on campus would be more than necessary, and I don't understand why the administration refuses to do so. College Green has virtually nowhere to eat with a meal plan. I know we are told there is Baker Center, but that's not always ideal. For one, Baker only takes flex points, not meals, and it is pricey to eat there everyday if you're someone like me who has to stay at the top of the hill for class anyway. Secondly, not everyone can afford to be on a flex plan, and they don't have anywhere close by to swipe for meals. Of course we are told Shively is right at the bottom of Morton Hill, but it's not practical to walk down the hill if we're just going to have to walk back up it 45 minutes later for class. Plus, didn't I already mention the herd of people that eat at Shively?
I know budget issues come into play, but it doesn't take a finance major to figure this one out...stop unnecessarily renovating the dorms! Though it is nice to have a renovated dorm, living in a regular dorm is just dandy too. I live in Washington, one of the few un-renovated dorms, and aside from the lack of outlets in my dorm room, I am perfectly content (but that's a different story). Every building doesn't need new roofs, or *gasp* copper gutters. I know the university is trying to improve the look of the university, but one would think they would logically start with the broken-down unflattering building on campus - what I like to call the wart on the face of a usually beautiful campus of Ohio University.
I guess my point is that the administrators of this university don't really understand what the students need. If they turned The Oasis into a mini dining hall/market that was conveniently located on College Green, I believe it would receive more foot traffic than they think, especially if it were open at later hours. It could even have another coffee house. I know they say Front Room at Baker is enough, but do they see the lines there? I feel bad because those poor employees are so overworked. My philosophy is that a college campus can't have enough coffee spots. Also, they could use a whole floor for seating; we all know that neither Baker nor Shively have enough of that. All I am saying is that I have noticed that those who are in charge of this campus really don't take students' needs to mind when making decisions about the campus. Before they make anymore decisions, I think the administration should eat at Jefferson or Shively for a week, and then tell me another campus-run dining facility isn't what we need.
Kaitlyn Crist is a freshman studying journalism.
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Opinion
Letter to the Editor
