This year the construction on campus seems to be everywhere you go. The new buildings rising around campus are adding to the changes at the U and are going to propel the U into a promising future. However, the full effects will be felt more by future students than by current ones. 
This does not mean the buildings will not provide current students with new opportunities. Rather, current students have to take full advantage of these new facilities and try to foster a sense of unity at the U.
The campus is changing before our eyes as a result of many factors. The most commonly known factor? The U joined the Pac-12, which caused many sports teams to update their facilities in an effort to make our student-athletes appropriately competitive in the conference. The new $32 million facility provides the football team with a sports medicine complex, separate team meeting rooms and a gigantic 250-seat cafeteria, all of which enable the team to better prepare for the upgraded competition in the Pac-12.
The $24 million basketball facilities accomplish a similar end for the basketball team, as do the $2.5 million upgrades to the track and field facilities, the $4.2 million softball facilities and the $1.5 million outdoor tennis courts — all in the name of preparing for the athletic level of the Pac-12.
Various departmental buildings are also being designed and constructed, such as the $70 million David Eccles Business Building and the new law building, which is finally under construction after breaking ground on June 4. This multi-storied $60.5 million building is greatly needed for the law department. The Thatcher Building for Biological and Biophysical Chemistry, which opened last year, and the Natural History Museum of Utah in the foothills at the top of campus create visible changes to the U’s landscape.
It is not that we should see it as a competition between sports and education. When you look at it in its entirety, you see how amazing these changes all are, and there is no telling how much return these buildings will bring in the future.
However, other things begin to emerge when you look at all these new buildings. Nearly all of them are built by the most modern environmental friendly architecture. Many of them are LEED certified: the Natural History Museum of Utah is gold, the Thatcher Building and David Eccles buildings are silver, and the new law school building is seeking platinum certification. This is an interesting trend, considering how diverse these departments are.
These buildings are already changing campus, but how much they change it remains up to the student body. Sports facilities are only as good as the athletes who use them to train. Educational buildings are only as good as the students who study in them. These new buildings bring a lot to campus, but it’s the students that will really impact it.. What we do with these buildings will have an impact on future students. How we use these buildings to better our education will help us in life. These new buildings on campus mean nothing if the students can’t come together to make the U a one-of-a-kind school.