Mid-April has arrived, and campus is still bogged down by this year’s long Wisconsin winter. After a Tuesday night snow storm producing several more inches of snow, no sign of the end is presently
in sight.
Soon enough however, the remainder of the snow will inevitably melt and ideally, campus will finally transition into the weather students spend their entire spring semester in anticipation of.
Realistically speaking, campus landscape construction is still well underway because of weather constraints Facilities Management have been backed up against.
Director of Facilities Management Terry Classen said the grass students imagine will be ready as soon as weather permits and most likely won’t be available at any point before the end of the semester — or even until mid-summer.
“We have a contractor ready to install the mall’s irrigation system here before Spring Commencement,“ Classen said. “It’s important that we get the system installed so the grass can begin to grow.”

While preparations for reaching this point are being scheduled prudently and the maintenance crew is working diligently, there seems to be an absence of desire for completion on the part of the
university.
Sophomore Alex Jackson said the mall’s renovations aren’t necessarily playing out as she’d hoped.
“It’s pretty disappointing that we won’t have grass this semester … I think what everyone looks forward to after so much snow is a green campus,” Jackson said. “I think I can speak for a lot of people when I say I’m already sick of last year’s construction, let alone what’s left to be done.”
Beyond the lawn itself, Jackson said she considers several of the other revisions made to lower campus to be generally unfavorable, namely the removal of the clock tower.
“One of the main things they showed us during tours of the campus was the clock,” said Jackson. “I find myself wondering what happened to it … honestly it was one of my favorite parts of campus.”
Beyond affecting students currently on campus, sophomore Aaron Druschba said he thinks the grassless lawn gives a poor impression for tour groups of
prospective students.
“It just feels like incoming students would be upset with the current condition of campus,” Druschba said. “Hopefully they can get the grass in as soon as possible for the sake of everyone involved.”
Despite the unfortunate untimeliness of the new mall’s landscape construction, there are a number of things for students to look forward to in future semesters to come.
“Sometime following early summer we’ll be planting some trees on the mall to make up for those that were lost in renovation of the student center,” Classen said.
In addition to the foliage being re-implemented on lower campus, finalizations to the mall’s amphitheater will be made as the weather begins to clear.
Despite the lack of green on the mall, University Activities Commission said in a previous Spectator article the newly completed amphitheater will ideally serve as a host to outdoor performances on behalf of their Concert Committee.