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The snow has melted away, but it has left behind a valuable lesson.
We saw the trails students created across the snow, and learned the shortcuts they want to take around campus. The college should build new sidewalks on the most popular pathways.
These include a path that cuts diagonally across the South Quad from Kendall to Delp Halls, and another through the lawn behind the library to the Howard Music Building.
Ohio State University, Columbia University, and University of Maryland built sidewalks after checking the preferred routes students would take across campus. Ohio State’s “Oval,” the main park in the center of campus, is likely the most famous sidewalk network built with this method.
Since students will continue to take the shortcuts whether there are sidewalks or not, the college has the option of either constantly reseeding the trodden-down pathways, or leaving the ugly muddy trails in place.
Adding sidewalks where students have worn down paths, as the college has done before, would accomplish several things.
First, it would reduce the travel time for students between campus locations. While the necessary locations on campus are generally less than a five-minute walk apart, it is a longer distance than it was before construction. Building new pathways would help bring cross-campus travel closer to its pre-construction times. The college could accomplish a double goal of reducing travel time during the construction period and providing routes that would remain effective once the projects are complete.
Second, sidewalks would accomplish an aesthetic goal. Replacing the muddy trails with sidewalks would make the campus look cleaner and more streamlined.
Finally, adding sidewalks would save the college maintenance costs. In the long run, it will be easier for the college to maintain the sidewalks than to replace the dead grass. The grass that remains after the new sidewalks will be safe, as students won’t trample over grass that is right next to a sidewalk. In addition, the new sidewalks will provide students with enough options so they won’t need to cut across campus anymore.
During the snowfall, we got a chance to see the pathways students prefer to take while traveling between campus locations. While Ohio State is not the model to follow in everything, they got it right with sidewalk planning. Hillsdale should do the same and put paths in the locations that students actually use.
Christian Papillon is a senior studying history.
