In the 4 weeks following the opening of Buntrock Commons, there has been a dialogue emerging about the building and about students' feelings about the building. This article is a reprint of our original questions and issues for thought, but with some additions and clarifications to help advance the dialogue. Thus far, reaction to Buntrock Commons has ranged from awed to simply passive to discouragingly ungrateful and greedy. Many students seem to 'expect' such an extravagant facility, and complain that it's been so long in coming. We should be incredibly grateful for this building and all the resources it brings to our campus, keeping in mind the fact that most people just don't have advantages like this.
Some facts seem to be in order.
But St. Olaf did have to spend its own money for the building, and that fact should be out in the open. The administration, in planning for Buntrock Commons, had in mind that it would be a place of community and comfort for all students, present and future. Certainly, the decision was not dictated solely by financial concerns. But just as certainly, marketing considerations for the future played a big part in this decision, just as in all college decisions. St. Olaf is being managed more like a corporation than it ever has been in the past.