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entrance of the campus was to
be preserved forever. It even had a
fairly nice trail there that began
next a big rock with a plaque on it.
Within the last 10 years or so, a local
kid in decided to build a mountain-
bike obstacle course in that
trail space. Everything in there was
reconfigured, so no one else could
use it. The college decided that it
was easy to put up big, red signs
that said “No Trespassing.” When
that happened, an amphitheater
that had been built there (for a second
time) went into major disrepair
and eventually disappeared.
“The benches are rotted--gone
completely,” said Dr. Robert
Hayden, campus advisor for Phi
Theta Kappa, the school’s Honor
Society. “You would never know
it was there. It’s amazing. It’s like
someone went in and took um’
out.”
But no one did.
Every year, Phi Theta Kappa does
a service project. This year, Hayden
has been “talking to a number of
professors on campus, primarily
advisors for Worldly Philosophers
and Dismal Scientists’ Society
[and] Environmental Club about
working on reestablishing the amphitheatre…
and [doing] a restoration.”
He wants to use Trex plastic
as the material for the rows of
benches and stage, because the
material won’t rot.
Conversely, Hayden believed
that maintaining the amphitheater
would be an obstacle to getting
it into usable condition again.
“That space, as it is now, no one
has to take care of it,” he said. “If
we actually rebuild the amphitheatre,
and made the space a little
more usable, someone would have
to maintain it. I’m not saying that
it won’t happen, but the roadblock
is that it’s the grounds crew that
needs to maintain it and they don’t
need any more work right now.”
The amphitheater had been
used in the past. “I know the
Environmental Club used it…and
also the people in the music building
used it; they’d go out and have
little concerts there,” said Hayden.
He wants to see the amphitheatre
return to campus and resume its
historical resource as an “outdoor
venue for classes and maybe small
concerts.”
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