by James C. Sherlock
Sometimes, things just force their way into your consciousness.
My wife and I were in Charlottesville this weekend.ย We were not there to visit the University, but its continuing construction overwhelms both the senses and attempts to get from A to B. Most of the growth is vertical — very vertical — on land that the University owns on or adjacent to the central Grounds.
Drive down Jefferson Park Avenue for a sense of the scale of it. Look straight up. Go to the intersection of Rt. 29 and 250 to see a new 14-acre complex under construction.
There is a sense that there is never to be an end to it.
There is certainly nothing to suggest a considered approach to growth in the Universityโs Strategic Plan. Sinclair Lewis recognized the symptoms a century ago.
No room was found in the Plan for any possibility of stopping doing something for which there is no longer sufficient demand in order to do something new in existing buildings.
Instead, University infrastructure growth seems on a self-generating loop — an idea for a new building, the land identified, a search for donors, an alumnus writes a check to buy immortality (unless the donor is later โcancelledโ by the left), and voilร , some of the initial funding, if not the long-term sustaining money, is found. Skilled construction workers are brought in by the contractors who build at such scale, who then leave when the job is complete.
Replay. (more…)
by Victoria Snitsar Churchill
by Shaun Kenney
