Students may have noticed campus looking better this semester, with more flowers, shrubs and trees.
The Department of Facilities Management, which is responsible for the maintenance of the university grounds, has been using more colorful flowers and different plants to beautify the campus, Facilities Management Director Ron Doerzaph said.
Areas around the main roads, the entrance, the island on St. James Street and Founder’s Circle have been planted with different kinds of flowers and shrubs than have been used in the past. Where large and mature trees used to overshadow flowerbeds, allowing only plants with a lack of color to grow, colorful flowers are now thriving.
“We are trying to add more color at various locations and use different types of plants,” Doerzaph said. “We have cut back a lot of trees to let the sunlight shine onto the flowerbeds, and we have added more annuals, which add more color and also bloom more often and longer.”
Impatients, petunias, roses and chrysanthemums have added to the color palette
“The President’s Office wanted us to use more red and white around campus,” Doerzaph said. “That is where the roses came in. We planted them at the entrance and at [Founder’s Circle], around the Lydia Moss Bradley statue.”
“I think President Glasser really wants to make our campus livelier,” junior electronic media major Sandra Hall said. “Before it was just more of the standard flowers that were being used. I really think she wants to emphasize a more vibrant campus.”
Also adding to the liveliness around the grounds are the new banners flying on the light poles.
“The president felt it was important to have the Bradley logo represented,” Doerzaph said. ”That is why we had the banners mounted.”
Hall also said she likes the banners.
“I have noticed the banners flying around the [Global Communications Center] building, and I like seeing the logo,” she said
The Facilities Department also is replacing the current street lighting with new light poles.
“We have been replacing the lighting with new, black light poles,” Doerzaph said. “There is better and more lighting now all around campus.”
Hall said she thinks there is definitely a noticeable difference in the way the campus looks this year compared to last year.
“I have seen lots of activity from the landscaping department – a lot of mowing and weeding and planting is going on, and it shows,” she said. “And now students actually want to go and sit and spend time outside.”