As of Monday, students may have noticed a few changes to the main pathway on campus.
The Honors Urban Ecology and Sustainability Scholars installed street signs on the most used sidewalk at the U, from North Campus Drive to South Campus Drive, renaming it “Commonwealth Avenue.” A commonwealth is a group of different entities with similar goals. Kat Nix, one of the scholars in the group, said this parallels how a university is structured.
“We chose the name Commonwealth Avenue to acknowledge the common path we all share every day and to evoke thoughts of interconnection between all disciplines,” she said. “All cities have main streets that contribute [to] that city’s core identity. We think it only right that the U have a main street as well to honor it’s unique identity.”
Nix said the hope of the scholars is to generate a greater sense of community on the campus. She feels that although students come from a broad variety of backgrounds and disciplines, there is a common bond between them. She also hopes it helps students find their way on campus.
Erika Longino, another scholar within the group, said the U is a place for experimental sustainability projects like this.
“The campus becomes a lab to see how people respond to changed environments,” Longino said. “Not only is it useful to see if a method is effective, but hopefully it improves the accessibility and character of the school.”
Stephen Goldsmith, the faculty advisor for the Honors Scholars, said his students applied the city layout to the university sphere as a “helpful” way for people to find each other’s location.
Zachary Schofield, a student of Goldsmith’s, said this was the ideal time for a project of this nature to take place on the U campus.
“We felt like there were divisions within the campus between the different colleges within the university and wanted to do something that would add a sense of unity to the campus,” Schofield said. “In the future we hope to make these signs more permanent and to add mission statements to the signs.”
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