It’s springtime at NIU. How can you tell? I’ll tell you—construction, construction, construction!

Now don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing wrong with maintaining the campus, provided that there are certain priorities, such as student safety.

Everyone knows that this is the safest campus in the state (NOT). Do you know how you can tell it is so safe? We don’t even need street lights. That’s right. All across campus there are street lights that are burned out. We must not need them because they never get fixed. How thoughtful of the maintenance crew; we wouldn’t want NIU to waste any money on useless things like that.

Another way you can tell NIU is so safe is our call boxes. Over half of them that I’ve seen are missing the locator light on top. And if the light doesn’t work, I wonder if the whole thing doesn’t work. But we must not need them.

If NIU is going to raise tuition and fees, the least they can do is follow routine maintenance and up keep. We, as students, pay for those “luxuries” that are supposed to keep us safe. But the people in charge of maintaining the campus can’t find time in their busy schedules to make sure the pathways are lit and the call boxes are easy to locate. It just shows you how important the students’ safety and well-being is at this university.

RICK LOPRESTO

Sophomore

Music Education