For years, UNC administrators have been applauded for attempting to retain the campus' natural beauty. Recent construction projects across campus, though, have members of the University community asking whether that policy has fallen by the wayside. In the past year, construction was approved or begun on an expansion of Kenan Stadium, a Health Affairs auditorium and a new entrance road to the Bell Tower parking lot. There was even some discussion of turning the IM-Rec fields near Carmichael Auditorium into a parking deck. We need to be careful that, in all our growth, we are sensitive to preserving green space on campus.
Nobody wants to live in a concrete jungle.
But Andrew Pearson, a member of the Student Environmental Action Coalition, said he questioned the University's commitment to preservation. Pearson said the work at Kenan Stadium, where trees are being razed to add 8,000 seats to the facility, and parking lot construction were signs of the University's lack of concern for preservation. Director of Facilities Planning and Design Gordon Rutherford said the difficulty was choosing between the needs of a large research university and UNC's old-fashioned southern college image. I think what you've got to do is balance green space with all of the other needs of the University. Ultimately, Rutherford said the issue came down to the way green space was laid out on campus, not how much of it there was.