Marquette Michigan may seem like Ann Arbor, East Lansing or even Mount Pleasant, but it’s not. Sure, it may be a college town like the rest; it has a storied history and an important public university that has stood for over a century.
Yet, it still doesn’t quite feel like the others on the list. It lacks a certain musk, an aura that the others have, and without it NMU gives off the impression of a slightly overfunded community college. The more you walk around campus, go to sporting events and stroll through the hallowed halls of the older dorms, you come upon the singular conclusion that NMU eradicates its own history.
Other than a few glass cases deep inside Gries Hall that hold the last remaining artifacts of the old forgotten NMU fraternities, and a few strangely decorated rooms around campus that mount ancient sports memorabilia like trophies, passersby would never guess the university’s true age.
With every new building on campus designed to fit the latest architectural trend, the idea that style could be congruent was left out in the cold Upper Peninsula winter. From 1950s brutalist brickwork, to the 1960s art deco University Center, all the way to the recently built Jamrich Hall that reminds you of a plastic water bottle, it makes you wonder if NMUs thirst to drive into the future includes destroying the things of the past that we all will someday hold dear in our hearts.
When you come back in 50 years, will West Science be abandoned and used for storage, like Lee Hall was before it?
Sitting unoccupied, Lee Hall’s history fades away faster than the handicap parking signs drilled into its brick walls. Every day it comes closer to a forgotten piece of history that cannot be recovered, until it finally disappears forever. Lee Hall drive will one day be the topic of incoming freshman, curious to the origins of its name. They may suspect that it belongs to Lee Hall, a building that only exists in the NMU Archives.
The logos which adorn the signs around campus are new, which makes sense, but the new signage isn’t a problem. You don’t see anyone wearing old style letterman sweaters and most students don’t have any idea what a vintage wildcat logo looks like.
The symbolism of the school has changed over the years. Now, with a focus on a new academic and athletic light, it seems to overshadow what the university had in the past. The lack of focus on the history of the school is noticeable in the life of its students,
especially when the only historical artifacts they come across on a daily basis are old signs that simply have yet to be replaced.
Nobody is disputing that new facilities, logos and clubs are a necessary part of the growth of a school. Change is an inevitable process and should be encouraged where and when it is needed or important. We must, however, fight to preserve the history and values that initially drew us to this school. Protecting the things that we love will assure that they remain now and continue into the future.
