To the Editor: It’s bad enough that the library will be closed my senior year. Yes, the Student Union will house the book collection and yes, there will be study space available all over campus. But in reality, it won’t be the same. But this isn’t even my complaint.

What is most frustrating is that construction has made it difficult to access the library even while we still have it. No more running down the Persson steps from class directly to the library’s front door to pick up a book. Now students must make a choice: either walk all the way down the Persson steps, past Little Hall, and turn right, cutting back up College Street to enter the library. Or, walk all the way down past Admissions and enter the library from that direction. Either way, it’s a hassle.

And now, they’ve made it even worse. What little comfort and freedom I still possessed has been taken away. Construction has now blocked off the walkway next to Donovan’s Pub forcing students to detour through the Student Union.

Now granted, usually walking up and down the hill each day is my only form of exercise and it couldn’t hurt to walk a few extra steps in either direction; I’m not that lazy. It’s more the principle that bothers me. Not only is Colgate taking away a perfectly useful library for my last year of college – the year when I need it the most for projects, papers and, most importantly, senior theses, in order to put in neat-sounding but functionally unnecessary cafes, robotic arm retrieval systems and spiral staircases – but now they are even affecting the usage and convenience of Case Library while it’s still accessible.

The very least they could do is make it easy for me to enjoy my last few months with Everett Needham Case Library as I know it.

So it’s moments like this, when I head down the grass hill in front of Little Hall to take the shortcut past Donovan’s Pub, only to have to turn right back around because I’ve forgotten that it’s been recently closed off, that I get the distinct impression that Colgate doesn’t really care about the students that go here now, but rather desires only to attract and please hypothetical high schoolers that may or may not matriculate sometime in the future.