O Quad, We Hardly Knew Ye

So young and already broken

Remember how last year the MBTA repaired the red line train, slowing it down for several months, making our already desperately slow, dirty and crowded commute a nightmare… Only to close it down again and again shortly afterwards due to track problems and bad planning?

Well, our Leaders decided to give the MBTA a run for its money. Case in point: UMass Boston’s stunningly meh quad. Yes, the one hyped ad nauseam by our Supreme Leaders, the one that took several years to build and eventually opened to the public during the glorious coronation of our one and only Supreme Leader, Emperor of the Sun, in early April.

Sadly, we barely had time to enjoy it. Only two months have gone by and it’s already closed for pathway repairs. Not that we’re surprised - earlier in the semester, before it had even opened, our student newspaper warned about structural deficiencies, cracks starting to pop up, and the paths being unfriendly to people with disabilities. Indeed, some of the walkways are already being taken apart. We can’t even blame the hoards of Hamas enthusiasts who trashed academic quads all over the country, since we didn’t even have on-campus encampments.

To be fair, structural deficiencies, collapses, cracks and fractures have been plaguing our campus buildings and parking lots since the 1970s. Our public transit system’s recent shutdowns also date back to years and years of neglect. However, our current Leaders do stand out. They showed that what would take the state decades to destroy - be it the public transit system or public higher education — they can achieve in mere two months. As they say themselves: We need to be innovative and accomplish more, and indeed they did!