Sometimes it seems like Northwestern is one giant construction site. There’s always a new dorm to build, a different building to renovate or campus infrastructure to replace. Since I arrived as a freshman in the fall of 2014, I’ve walked past project after new project. NU touts many of the projects as beneficial for improving the general quality of student life, but as construction fences get built around the facilities I use most often, I can’t help but feel like my quality of life has decreased over the past six quarters.

Of course, students get to celebrate and make use of the completed projects. The Ryan Center for the Musical Arts offers premier rehearsal and performance space, in addition to a gorgeous view. The newly renovated Mid-Quad buildings have vastly improved facilities and the Lakeside Field renovation created a second turf field that can be used for intramural or recreational sports.

But during the renovations themselves, the facilities are completely out of commission. For example, while Lakeside Field was being redone and expanded, IM and recreational sports, especially soccer and football, took a big hit. IM football games had to be played at Long Field and IM soccer got rid of men’s intramural soccer and placed a limit on the number of teams playing Co-rec. Now that the Lakeside Field renovations are almost complete, and we have a new synthetic turf field, it remains to be seen if recreational play will be permitted at all.

The negative effects of NU’s recent construction projects aren’t limited to athletic facilities. In March, the Mudd Science and Engineering Library was closed down for renovations, and most of Mudd Library will be demolished and rebuilt in order to create the Center for Fundamental Physics at Low Energy.

Although Mudd is a more specialized library and has fewer patrons than Main Library, it is still an important institution for those living on North Campus or spending a lot of time in Tech and the Research Quad. Mudd Library was home to banks of computers, printers and study space. Without Mudd, students that regularly made use of its resources will have to go elsewhere to access mandatory software for class, print assignments and posters, and study for midterms and finals. Main Library will likely receive the brunt of displaced patrons, meaning the already full study spaces will be even more crowded come reading week. Mudd Library also provided many positions for students with work-study allotments, as a result, Main Library has had to accommodate an influx of student workers.

Mudd Library’s renovation is different from that of Lakeside Field in that the completed project, the CFP,  will create little benefit for current or future undergraduate students. The creation of the CFP is the result of NU’s recent hiring of Harvard University Prof. Gerald Gabrielse, who will make the new CFP home for his research group and serve as the founding director of the CFP. The CFP is scheduled to open in the fall of 2017, meaning current juniors will not enjoy the new facilities and current sophomores will only experience a condensed and miniaturized version of the library they visited before. Any potential for undergraduate research opportunities will have to wait until Gabrielse’s research group is fully established.

I believe the problems caused by recent renovations and construction projects outweigh the benefits we will directly experience. However, I understand NU will be here long after my graduation. In order to grow and improve its status among top world universities, the construction of new facilities is inevitable and necessary. But that doesn’t mean our experience as current undergraduates should receive less consideration.

Instead of focusing on campus renovations to improve the quality of student life, NU should focus on projects that don’t require contractors and power tools. There’s no shortage of student complaints, from Counselling and Psychological Services’ limited accessibility, to the quality of certain dining halls on campus (read: Elder). Finding and addressing the concerns of current students is a much more useful and direct way of improving student life than building a fancy new dorm for future students.

Colin Wang is a Weinberg sophomore. He can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.