As President Wayne Clough officially leaves campus in the hands of Provost Gary Schuster, we’d like to take this chance to say thank you and goodbye. Clough did Tech a lot of good during his fourteen years here and we wish him good luck at the Smithsonian Institution and all his future endeavors.
The official loss of Clough on our campus leads us to imagine who will be his successor. The new president will be chosen by the Board of Regents with a recommendation from the President’s search committee, which will include representatives from the Board of Regents, faculty members, and only one student representative.
It is slightly depressing that with 18,000 students on campus that only one student voice is allowed to be heard. There isn’t even a division made between the interests of graduate students and undergrads, even though in almost all other ventures on campus each are represented by different people.
We don’t necessarily doubt the Board’s ability to choose a good president, but it is important to include students in a decision that will affect them the greatest. We hope the student voice will be considered and a new president will be chosen who can live up to Clough’s legacy here and move us into the future.
The Georgia Tech Foundation’s desire to demolish the 771 Spring Street building is unwarranted and a little upsetting at this time.
While it is important for Tech to move forward and develop Tech Square, it is absurd to tear down a building without a distinct plan for what would be put in its place.
Since the 771 Spring Street building is also historical in a city where most of it’s history has been torn down, this becomes even more important. The 771 Spring Street building isn’t an eyesore whose elimination would be a noble pursuit; it is a pretty building that adds character to a less attended-to area of Midtown.
While the building is abandoned now, it has been used as office space in the past and could be put to use again. Not only are a lot of current students upset about the prospect of razing a piece of Tech’s legacy, many alumni and members of the Midtown community are up in arms as well. Flattening this building without any better plans lined up for the space could cause roll calls to be significantly lowered. The Foundation would be doing Tech a disservice if they can’t find a creative resolution.