No matter where people look on campus, their eyes will almost certainly land upon a construction site. This is evidence of the massive amount of funding that has been pouring into the university over the past few years.

All of this construction, whether it’s renovating existing buildings, erecting new structures, or shoring up the university’s infrastructure, is designed to make Stony Brook as competitive as possible within the next decade. While this proves that the university is committed to its students and plans to continue to offer a quality education to them, the construction more often than not alienates the students who are currently attending it.

All of these investments in infrastructure and buildings are generally very inconvenient to students and are eyesores for those of us who are forced to embark on massive detours around these sites, which appear to last for eternity. The university needs to take a more balanced approach toward construction on campus by finishing projects before starting new ones.

As everyone has observed, the standards to get into Stony Brook have been increasing fairly dramatically ever since the funding began. While some of this change is due to the sheer number of additional students who are applying to universities and to state schools in particular, part of it is due to the new facilities and institutes that Stony Brook has created, which make the education received here more valuable. By becoming more competitive, the reputation of Stony Brook University will continue to improve even after the current students graduate, which will give graduates an advantage in terms of how employers view their Stony Brook University degree. This benefit shouldn’t be understated due to the consequences that it has on our future careers.

The downside involves the unapologetically obnoxious piles of dirt everywhere and chain link fences that surround these construction sites and the sound of heavy machinery that permeates most of the campus.

Construction will no doubt be a prominent aspect of my college career here at Stony Brook. The construction will obviously not end next year, and once the university finishes renovating these buildings, it will just begin building new ones.

The administration needs to realize that if they want to improve student life on campus, especially over the weekends, they need to make students care about the university.

The most obnoxious construction site that I have the misfortune of laying eyes on every day is the infrastructure repairs that run through the center of Tabler Quad, which effectively divides the group of buildings in half.

Tabler Quad is known for its atmosphere which revolves mainly around the naturalistic focus of the center of the quad, which has been devastated by the construction. The problem that I have with this specific instance isn’t its displeasing appearance, but its longevity.

Over the course of a few months, the majority of the energy has been focused on other parts of the infrastructure repairs, leaving Tabler to remain in relatively the same state. By leaving Tabler in this seeming state of disrepair, the university is doing a disservice to the students who reside there. There are other areas which have been experiencing very little progress.

The university needs to take precautions to prevent the university’s atmosphere from becoming that of constant construction; if that becomes the case, then the situation regarding students leaving campus over the weekend will only get worse.

No one wants to live in an active construction zone. If the administration wants the students to stay, then it should focus on improving not only the facilities of the campus, but also the university’s atmosphere.