As anyone who goes to school at UTM’s main campus knows, the slightest amount of rainfall can mean hard times for everyone who has the misfortune of walking to and from classes.
There’s plenty of construction currently underway on campus that is not related to flood prevention or control, and, while they may currently detract from UTM’s beauty, all of the upgrades, we hope, will be for the greater good of the campus.
With all of this construction, we can’t help but also hope that some of the efforts will help with another major annoyance on campus: flooding.
The effects of minimal rainfall range from a minor inconvenience to roadblocks that interfere with sidewalks and other heavily travelled areas on campus. We’re talking about the standing water that makes all walkways need a caution sign.
Ellington Hall and the sidewalks connecting Humanities and the Administration Building are some major problem areas on campus, which isn’t to be downplayed because most of the time your foot traffic is coming from those students who live on campus.
These problems have been easier to notice because of the absurd amount of rain West Tennessee has been getting in February, but that doesn’t mean the weather is an excuse for not moving forward.
We at The Pacer encourage UTM to look into some flood prevention projects soon, if none are currently in the works, and consider the safety of students traveling to class each day in the torrential downpours.
For starters, some upgrades to the sidewalks to keep them from being totally submerged in many areas would be much appreciated. We could also use more rugs for drying shoes inside the buildings and a way to keep our umbrellas from further soaking the floors in the buildings.
While we can’t control Tennessee’s crazy, unpredictable weather patterns, we can at least try to make everyone’s lives a bit easier.
We should start doing this in a way that doesn’t involve students considering kayaking to classes.
