CIW deserves to know what's happening to CIW

On March 30, 2007, Binghamton University Physical Facilities began construction on a new generator to be placed underneath the College-in-the-Woods basketball court. For this installation to take place, Physical Facilities had to block off twelve (12) parking spots in BU parking lot 02, the lot between the CIW basketball court and Mohawk Hall. In addition to closing off these spots, Physical Facilities proceeded to unearth the basketball court, removing the rims from each basket and cordoning off the court from use, presumably for the rest of the school year.

We, the undersigned, are upset and frustrated with these actions taken by Physical Facilities, and additionally peeved as to why these actions were taken so secretly, as construction began without anyone knowing almost immediately after most students left for spring break.

There are three different issues here:
1) Many students enjoyed using the CIW basketball court for recreational purposes, especially with the spring weather looming around the corner. Now, there is no more CIW basketball court;
2) The parking situation, already extremely cramped in CIW, has become even more asinine. Exact figures are unavailable at the moment, but there are obviously way more CIW residents with parking passes than there are parking spots, leaving many residents to park in lots in Mountainview and Newing. Residential students who commute to and from, say, an off-campus job are constantly inconvenienced by having to park in alternate lots. Mohawk and Cayuga residents have an especially long walk to that "nearby" Mountainview lot.
3) Perhaps the most troubling aspect of all of this is Physical Facilities' inability to communicate their plans to the residents of CIW, who pay exorbitant amounts of money for projects like this to take place. Yes, construction is necessary for maintaining and upgrading our campus, but students who pay the bills have been grossly mistreated in this instance, even after the monumental issues we encountered in the fall with a shortage of furniture (which was, coincidentally, also caused by a lack of communication).

What do we want? Well, there's not much that can be done about the basketball court at this point, obviously. The parking situation, however, is different: parking lots O3 and O4, currently designated commuter lots, could be temporarily redesignated as residential lots until construction is complete. Because it's already mid-April, this is a change that could be implemented as quickly as the destruction of the back portion of parking lot O2. History has shown there is an obvious, obvious need for not only those parking spots that were taken away from CIW, but also an entire additional lot for CIW residents with cars.

Even more importantly than the parking situation is the communication situation. It's genuinely unfair to CIW students that these projects are undertaken without any prior notice to us. Now, there's a giant hole in the middle of CIW, and we are without a basketball court and twelve of our already limited parking spots. We are not against the regular upkeep and upgrading of College-in-the-Woods; however, we are extremely frustrated with the lack of communication between Physical Facilities and the students who actually live in these construction zones. Hopefully, through our CIW Council, we can foster much stronger, more open means of communication about these projects in the future.