In a Sept. 29 SGA meeting, Associate Vice President of Facilities Jack Butler fielded questions about the new furniture on Centennial Plaza and notably less greenery.
Butler asked for senators’ input on the nearly completed plaza and new furniture additions, who said they like the furniture on the plaza. Twenty white Adirondack chairs and five shaded tables, each with four chairs, were placed behind Derryberry Hall, and 12 benches were added throughout the plaza.
“We don’t want to overdo it on the furniture though,” Butler said. “The whole point of the plaza was to have it open and useable for students for whatever, and it looks like it’s being successful in that manner.”
Butler also mentioned that the furniture, with exception to the larger benches, is moveable, so students can arrange and rearrange furniture on the plaza to fit their needs.
One type of furniture unlikely to be seen on the plaza is a hammock. Butler said before renovations began on South Patio, a tree spade was brought in to relocate 18 trees from the patio to other places on the fringe of campus.
Natalie Hughes, a human ecology major, said she would use her hammock more if there were more locations on campus to do so.
“I used to use my hammock on campus,” Hughes said, “but I’ve only used it once this semester, and it wasn’t even on Centennial Plaza; it was over by Johnson Hall.”
Senators also commented that students would appreciate more greenery as opposed to more brick and concrete.
“College is suffocating enough,” sophomore Sara Rogers jokes, “let alone taking away my source of oxygen.”
Butler said adding more greenery is in the Master Plan for the campus. The plan includes planting trees along every road on the interior of campus and adding more trees to the major parking lots at Foundation Hall, Volpe Library and west stadium.
