After reading the article about Phase IV, there’s not much that I couldn’t get excited about. I think I speak for the majority of the student body when I say that I thought the renovations to campus ended with the Jeffords Auditorium and the roof to the library. Clearly we were wrong. We’re actually getting a new campus center, gym, field and skate park. Wait really? Castleton?

Well it really shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise. Look at what Wolk has already done on our campus. I haven’t been here long, but I know that fireside had been redone, then they built a new weight room and attached a dorm to it. Then they built three more dorms, and this year they re paved Africa, set up the lights, built the new auditorium and are doing the new greenhouse.

Castleton is changing, and Wolk is leading the way. He’s guiding us through some relatively uncharted waters here, certainly considering what this school has been like. I’ve been here for only three years, but the changes I’ve seen since the fall of ’05 have been enormous.

They say that a renaissance is a rebirth, a new beginning if you will. Well is there a better word to sum up what’s happening on Campus? If Castleton five years ago was a matured, grown up school, is it not fair to say that this renovation of the campus is the college’s own rebirth? That rebirth is one of Castleton emerging confidently in the new millennium, as a school that is continually pushing itself forward.

It all started with the changing of the school’s philosophy, the motto we all know, “the small school with a big heart”. Then came the physical changes, we’ve all seen them, whether it be air conditioning in Leavenworth or the tearing down of Reed House and the construction of the three new buildings, they’ve been impossible not to notice and appreciate.

And the most positive thing about all this? There seems like there’s no end in sight. The two biggest additions are the new field and the new campus center. Well even after they’re both finished, they’re only just going to further the school’s progression.

The new field will help the school’s sports program astronomically and who knows what teams we’ll see playing on it in the future (I can see the goalposts in the end zones now). The campus center is going to be a huge step forward to bring together the two sides of the student body that really do not interact; commuters and residents.

This campus is going through a renaissance, Wolk is guiding the way and we’re all a part of it. Too many students complain about things on campus whether it be the name of a building, or a bump in the driveway in front of a certain dorm. Really what we should be doing is considering ourselves residents of a great campus. Not many schools that I hear about are going through so much change. It’s good to know that ten years down the line this school won’t be deteriorating. That’d be impossible, deterioration requires neglect, and a resistance to adapt, and well. that’s something that those running Castleton won’t let happen.