Unnoticed by almost everyone but the few who protested against them, the yellow bollards previously installed to prevent cars from driving on campus have been removed.
Director of Campus Security and Emergency Management William Whorley said the removal is due to some potential construction plans as well as some severely needed repairs for damages caused by snow removal and other equipment.
“If we raise all the money that we need for the chapel, the chapel will go where the bollards were,” Associate Dean of Men Jeffery Rogers said. “This is all a work in progress, but construction projects may change the whole flow and traffic, the Quad, etc.”
Apart from exciting a few students and an alumnus, the change most likely will not affect students on campus.
“They spent money to install them and nobody noticed. It was like they didn’t even exist — people kept driving up there anyway. And then they got rid of them, and no one really noticed — people drive up there anyway,” sophomore Kate Patrick said.
While the money spent on their installment now may seem like a waste, Whorley said they may attempt to repair and re-install the bollards, if construction plans do not interfere. The maintenance crew provides free removal and re-installation of the bollards. These re-installation plans may upset some.
“There has been no greater enemy to the defense of liberty and the education of young people in the liberal arts than the bollards at Hillsdale College. It warms my heart to know that those impediments to freedom have been removed,” alumnus Casey Harper ’14 said.
Both Harper and Patrick said they believe the bollards detract from the beauty of the campus.
“There’s something cool about learning about beautiful things in a beautiful place, and rusty yellow eyesores definitely don’t make it more beautiful,” Harper said. “Campus will definitely be more beautiful now. With this small of a campus, every little bit counts.”
“That’s probably the only advantage of their removal, that the campus looks better,” Patrick said.
Whorley, on the other hand, said he found the bollards a good option for campus.
“Others options didn’t look as professional, or fit with the décor of the campus,” Whorley said. Other options such as gates, chains, and cables impede the walkways.
The color, however, was not entirely intended for decoration, but also to make the bollards more apparent. Immediately after their installment, security received some complaints about students tripping over them.
“It’s a great big yellow thing. Unless your eyes are closed or you’re asleep, I don’t know how you could miss it,” Whorley responded to those complaints. Patrick felt differently.
“I’ve tripped on them before, because there’s all this ice, and then snow. You don’t see them, and then you trip over them,” Patrick said.
Though the bollards are now gone, Rogers and Whorley are not worried about the safety of students as they were before.
“Security is vigilant about making sure that when cars do come on campus, they’re watching the speed. Everyone is cognizant of right-of-way to pedestrians,” Rogers said.
