Popular University of Pretoria student and content creator @itunigirl posted a TikTok with the caption, “POV: your daily uni walk is sponsored by a construction site”. The comments were flooded with students – past and present – listing their complaints, with one comment saying “swear they’ve been doing this forever”. However, the main takeaway from the comments is that no one seems to know the true reason for their daily inconvenience.
In various polls that were conducted on the PDBY Instagram page, students were asked about the ongoing construction on campus. In one of the polls, 71% of respondents expressed enthusiasm for the on-campus upgrades. Another poll asked students what they think about the construction, and the results were as follows: 50% felt that it is bad, 41% felt neutral about it, and only 9% feel that it is good. Additionally, some students feel that there are other areas on campus that need to be attended to. One of the areas mentioned was the Piazza, while multiple respondents expressed distress at the state of the Humanities Building with its “nasty bathrooms” and lecture halls that are missing multiple chairs.
Dirty shoes and marked pants have become part of the unofficial student uniform, which is why it is important to ask the right questions: what is happening on our campus, and why is it happening? Are the workers on the ground even aware of what they are working on?
The main culprit of the messy construction is Lynnwood Road – the source of the dirty shoes and marked pants situation for students living at Brooklyn House, Brooklyn Studios, and Invicta, just to name a few. At the time of writing, the part of Lynnwood Road by the main university entrance is closed off. When one of the workers was anonymously asked about the construction, he said that they have been working on widening the road. When asked if there was an estimated time of completion, no clear-cut answer was given, only a simple “We don’t know”.
A message from ESP, the app that was known as “the load shedding app” but now functions as a way to know what is happening around the community, says, “Please take note that Lynnwood Road will be closed… for 3 weeks commencing Monday 29th June to accommodate road works for storm water pipes to be installed across Lynnwood Road. A second closure will take place between Roper Street to University Road causing traffic to detour into Roper and behind Pretoria Oos Laerskool towards Justice Mahomed.”
For House Nala, Asterhof, House Khutso, and Erica (NAKE) residents, the path between the parking lot and the Student Services Building has been seemingly closed off overnight. It sounds like an insignificant complaint, but if someone was running late and forgot about the construction, it can be a massive hindrance. Ms Nxumalo, a second-year student at UP, has not seen a campus without construction or a residence experience without excessive background noise. “Amid construction near Thuto and the NAKE residences’ parking lot, studying and applying oneself for semester test week and exams becomes incredibly difficult. Over and above the tools being unbearable, it feels like a huge disregard towards students of the NAKE residence.” Later, she added, “It is a huge disservice to the [student] community [because] not all students have access to noise-cancelling headphones over and above exam season traffic where the libraries fill up rapidly. [This] often [leaves] NAKE students no option but to study in their rooms.”
As the background noise seemingly has no end in sight, one worker on the site said that the Student Affairs Building (Roosmaryn) is being refurbished. They said, “What we are taking out, we are trying to repair, not change the heritage of the building.” The worker adds, “Obviously some pieces of the building are old, for example, we have removed the wooden flooring and will be putting in some concrete tiles.”
While no active construction was taking place at the Old Chemistry Building, a notice had been put up outside stating that the building is being restored with an estimated project duration of eight months.
While all of the construction is frustrating, 24% of students feel that the construction is unnecessary, 42% feel that it is absolutely necessary, and the remaining 34% believe that some construction is needed. This begs the ultimate question: are we lucky to have a well-maintained campus, even if it is at the expense of our ears, shoes, and pants?
Visual: Ilitha Nonkonyana
