What a difference three years make

Let me take you back to a time before the Mattin center, before the Recreation center, before Hodson Hall and long before Levering Hall was made over by the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy gurus. Come back with me to the year 2000, my freshman year. It's hard enough to believe I am finally a senior, but what is even more remarkable is the changes Hopkins has made toward advancing student life.

When I first arrived at Hopkins, the Mattin Center was in development, the weight room was situated on a racquetball court and tractor-trailers littered a campus that looked more like a war zone than a university. During my freshman year, all the seniors looked back with fondness at what Hopkins used to be. Now, seniors wonder how we ever survived our freshman year without all of these luxuries.

Have you ever heard of Merryman Hall? If you haven't, you don't want to know. Originally a temporary structure built during World War II, Merryman stood where Hodson is now. A cute, quaint, but dilapidated little building, Merryman used to house Academic Advising and the Counseling Center. Unique as it was, Garland Hall is a much better fit for both, and Hodson fits right in with the rest of this pristine campus.

The field situated on the freshman quad was in an entirely different state. There was no grass and no area to play Frisbee. In fact, it was fenced off and filled with bulldozers and massive amounts of dirt. Living in the AMR's, we would wake up every morning to the sound of jackhammers. There's nothing worse than waking up to a chorus of construction every day.

The lawn in front of the freshman quad wasn't the only fenced-off part of campus. Because the master plan called for covering just about every walkway with bricks, both the Upper and Lower Quad fields were blocked off. The campus had no grass, tons of machinery and probably led to a decline in the number of people applying to Hopkins.

There was no shiny new recreation center in which to lift weights, run, or play basketball. There was only the Athletic Center, the older building that you will probably set foot in about five times in your college career. The basketball courts had to be shared with the varsity teams. So if a team had a practice, they would just boot you off the court. The weight room was a downright crime against humanity, consisting of two racquetball courts. The rusty equipment included only free weights with one lateral pull.

The area in front of Levering in between Garland and the lower quad was not an area to relax and hang out. It was instead a loading dock for Gilman Hall where trucks would pull in. Only last year did the University close off the area and make it accessible for pedestrians.

Those of you in the freshmen class are probably not aware of how fortunate you are. If you think student life isn't up to par, just look to the past. Don't listen to anyone saying, "back then it was so much better." Frankly, it wasn't. Hopkins, like any other university, is what you make of it. Now you have more tools with which to construct a better college experience.