Out of 100 students asked in Knorr Family Dining Room during dinner, 42 of them dislike the yellow traffic bollards on campus, five liked them and 53 students are indifferent toward them or never noticed them.
“We don’t want people driving on campus,” Associate Dean of Men Jeffery Rogers said. “It is not a super highway or U.S. 12.”
He explained that they are meant to deter traffic. There are blind spots on campus and skateboarders that whip around the sidewalks even during the winter.
Rogers said that students have been known to drive up on campus, especially during the warmer months, either to get something they lost or to hang out and blare music on the quad.
Students have reported seeing security vehicles driving up onto the grass to avoid the bollards instead of lowering them with their key. Tire tracks in the snow left evidence of at least one car that has simply ignored the bollards and used the grass.
The staff, including security, has been asked not to drive around the bollards, Rogers said. He believes safety can be aesthetically pleasing and does not want the staff driving through the landscaping.
He also reported that the bollards are effective.
“I’ve seen a car drive up to the bollards, freeze, and then back up onto the main road again,” Rogers said.
At the end of the day, the bollards have been put up because the administration cares about the students and wants to make sure they are safe. Bollards are standard at other universities and Rogers wanted to incorporate them at Hillsdale College.
“We would like zero vehicle vs. student encounters,” Rogers said. “Usually, the vehicles win those.”
The students in the dining hall shared their own opinions on the usefulness and aesthetic appeal of the bollards.
“They are ineffectual and unnecessary,” junior Michael Kreuz said.
Another student admitted the bollards have not stopped him from driving on campus.
“What is the purpose?” sophomore Sophia Coyne-Kosnak said. “And they are a blemish on the campus.”
“They just make campus uglier,” sophomore Christy Allen said in agreement.
Freshman Julia Youngstrom said she hates them and thinks they are totally aesthetically displeasing and need to go.
Despite being put up to keep students safe, freshman Alissa Jones said she dislikes them because she trips over them.
“They are an unwarranted restriction on our freedom of movement which exhibits a distrust for the student’s character and decency,” junior Bret Essley said.
Many of the students haven’t noticed them and if they have, they don’t care.
The five students who liked them said they desired a safe campus where they could walk freely.
“It’s outrageous. Cars are killing machines. It’s only a matter of time before someone gets run over on their way to class,” freshman Chris Boyajian said.
Senior Sam Ashmore, who works mornings on security, said the bollards are not as effective as they were intended to be.
“The greatest time students drive on campus is late afternoon, and the bollards are not up then,” Ashmore said.
He said he has witnessed people driving around the bollards, and students in general do not drive on campus in the middle of the night.
“The goal is to keep campus safe, but this is not the most effective way.”
