Construction at ESU

Littered trash at ESU Dormitory Construction Site. Photo Credit / Kathleen Kraemer Littered trash at ESU Dormitory Construction Site. Photo Credit / Kathleen Kraemer
Littered trash at ESU Dormitory Construction Site. Photo Credit / Kathleen Kraemer
Littered trash at ESU Dormitory Construction Site.
Photo Credit / Kathleen Kraemer

By Kathleen Kraemer
Editor-in-Chief

I am no stranger to construction work. I went to high school locally at Stroudsburg, where construction of the building took place for the entirety of my attendance.

We had outdoor modular classrooms, plywood ramps instead of stairs and black tarps for walls in some areas.

Now, at ESU, I am once again faced with construction as another new dormitory building is constructed on campus.

Needless to say, I have a lot of strong opinions regarding construction, construction workers and the associated inconveniences and disruptions to my education.

In high school, the construction was quiet and relatively clean and the workers were respectful and did not interfere with the students or their work.

There were obviously things that could not be avoided, like the sound of jack-hammering as I walked to and from several classes, walking outside in a downpour to get from one side of the school to the other, and the inevitable draft that probably gave a few students a cold.

On the other hand, though, they did their best to allow us to function and to keep things as normal as possible.

The construction crew here on campus this semester is an entirely different story.

The first and most obvious complaint I have is the lack of parking. I am a commuter and parking is vitally important. The construction of this dorm is detrimental to the parking situation.

When we lay out The Stroud Courier I am on campus beginning at 6 p.m. and I don’t leave until well into the wee hours of the morning. Some days it’s a more reasonable midnight or 1 a.m. but frequently it is 3 or 4 a.m. At these times, I am not comfortable walking very far to get to my car and head home.

When I arrive on campus, there is frequently not any parking anywhere near when I need to be, meaning I have to walk across campus at undesirable hours.

Additionally, the construction site is dirty. The amount of dirt that has accumulated on my car from parking near it is disgusting.

It’s not just the dirt though. The construction workers litter all over the site and it spreads into the parking lot and around campus. The other day, I had to step around a pile of trash to get into my car.

This disregard for the cleanliness on our campus is appalling to me. College student’s litter enough without the help of a construction crew trashing our campus.

It is impossible to keep the campus clean if there are two groups of people who don’t care about how it looks.

I understand that they cannot be expected to be spotless, but it would be nice if they could at least stick their trash in a can where it belongs just like the rest of us.

I get that progress is important and the dorms are overcrowded so we do need more buildings.

I just wish that the construction workers and the construction plans were more considerate of our campus community.

Email Kathleen at:
kkraemer2@live.esu.edu