If you can’t beat them, join them
By Mark Tarnacki
After years of trying to persuade students to stay off the grass, the college has relented; a stone diagonal sidewalk now runs from Alliot Student Center to the archway between Cheray and St. Edmund Halls.
Alan Dickinson, associate director of grounds & special services, said construction of the Cashman, Pontigny and Canterbury residence halls several years ago changed student foot traffic patterns significantly so that an unsightly dirt path was worn into the lawn going to St. Edmunds Hall. “We tried trees and shrubs to possibly block the way but that didn’t work, so we put a walkway in,” he said.
Dickinson’s crews also planted six new oak trees in front of the new residences and elsewhere around campus. “We’re hoping to do some black walnut trees this fall, since that’s a species we don’t have,” he said. “We’re always trying to plant a diversity of trees because experts stress that you should have no more than 10 percent of one type of tree in case of a blight.” Autumn-blaze maples and blue spruce have also been recently planted on campus.
