Ten.
No, I am not talking about about how many dollars you now must have to buy a combo meal at Talley Student Union. Ten is the number of times I have tripped on uneven or missing bricks since the beginning of the semester.
Now, to be fair, I do have a habit of texting while walking, and my coordination skills have never been higher than slightly below average. However, from what I have seen from walking around campus and what I have heard from friends, I am not the only one who has trouble with our school’s signature choice of pavement.
The university always seems to be looking for ways to keep NC State’s campus safe for all students. I say it is time to look down.
I have two friends (both students) who had to take time out of their already stressful lives to visit the Student Health Center due to brick-related injuries. The first of these friends, a skateboarder, was cruising along to class when the front wheel of his board got caught in a hole from a missing brick, sending him flying. He crashed face-first onto the pavement.
Safe to say, my friend missed class that day.
The second tried to walk across campus on a rainy day when she tripped and tumbled down stairs because the soles of her shoes didn’t provide enough traction to keep her stable atop slippery bricks.
They both turned out OK, but both sustained minor injuries that would never have happened had the university chosen a less treacherous pavement option or if the current paths were properly maintained.
All right, fine. The university can’t just up and repave the entire campus overnight. It is costly, would take a long time and would temporarily cause some serious construction ugliness—not to mention the whole brick tradition thing. But there are some things that can be done, starting with those traditions.
I am talking about one in particular: the brick-stealing tradition.
Sure, it is fun to want an authentic NC State brick to keep in a dusty box under your bed as a reminder of what true dedication to your alma mater looks like. But when that keepsake can cause a fellow member of the Wolfpack to require a “trip” to student health, it’s worth reconsidering.
The holes left from missing bricks are dangerous. Bikers and skateboarders can easily hit them while moving quickly through campus. On rainy days, the holes fill with water, making them appear level with the rest of the ground and thus posing even more of a hazard to campus-crossers.
From somebody who has stepped in a water-filled brick hole: Please, folks, cut that tradition out and leave the bricks in.
Don’t mistake my request that students stop stealing bricks as my accepting the university has no role in maintaining our campus’s walkway safety. If NC State is going to pride itself on having a unique campus aesthetic and continue paving new pathways with more and more bricks, it must be more diligent about replacing missing pieces and repaving surfaces that have grown uneven over time.
In the past, I have noticed certain brick holes were not filled up to a week after my first sighting. I don’t know if the problem stems from lack of knowledge about where problem bricks are located or if the university simply doesn’t perform brick maintenance every day of the year. Whatever the case may be, it is time NC State rethinks how it handles maintaining and repairing the paths students walk on every day.
We need to address this problem brick by brick.
