On my first day back on campus, I walked inside the HUB to get some dinner at the Star. I knew that construction was incoming, and that there would be some adjusting to do. But, the changes hit me right away when I realized I couldn’t even enter the same door I had always entered in my three and a half years at Moravian.
No, the front door to the Star was locked, as I was supposed to enter from outside. And when I got inside the Star, it wasn’t done there. When I got in line at Hometown, I was told that the direction you were supposed to order food is now reversed. So, I can’t enter the way I used to, and I can’t order food the way I used to. So far, yes … this is only a small inconvenience. For my routine-craving brain, it’s certainly still an adjustment. But, if this was the only way the HUB renovations have affected students, this would be a non-story. Sadly, this is not the case.
I have known about these HUB renovations for a while now because I work for the development department. I’m a manager at Phonathon, which is definitely a job I’d recommend to anyone looking for a work-study position. But, anyway, because I worked in Phonathon, I had heard the initial whispers of a renovation starting in the Summer of 2024. I thought to myself, perfect. I’ll graduate in May and let the future Moravian students enjoy the freshly renovated HUB. I won’t have to worry about any of the construction, as it will be past my time as a student. But, then, Moravian got antsy. They decided that their boatloads of cash needed to be spent sooner rather than later and moved their construction up to the Winter of 2024. And, that’s where many problems began to arise.
I was President of Greyhound Radio throughout 2023, as I had enjoyed hosting shows throughout my time at Moravian. Hosting shows in the basement of the HUB was a special weekly tradition for me, and I had seen that station grow over the three and a half years I was there. When I was on the Executive Board in 2022 as Vice President, we completely repainted and redecorated it. But, of course, this was right before the HUB renovations were announced. Maybe if we had known ahead of time, we wouldn’t have dedicated so much effort to redecorating a room that would be destroyed less than two years later.
Despite my last-ditch plea to Dean Lloyd and President Grigsby, I knew in my heart the HUB renovations were still going through by the time December approached. And so, the club I was proud to be a part of for almost four years was now being forcibly relocated. Where were we relocated? Well, our new home is essentially a closet in the Zinczenko room in Reeves Library. Back in the fall semester, I talked with the “HUB space committee” about this, as they offered Zinczenko as our new location. I felt I had no choice but to accept their terms because it all just felt inevitable!
However, it’s not just my own selfish interests that make me write this article. No, there are plenty of other reasons the HUB renovations were a stupid mistake. After all, the theatre club was screwed over by this as well, and quite frankly, they were screwed over worse than the radio club was. That’s because their space was also in the basement of the HUB, but they didn’t have a new space to transition to in the spring semester. How unfair is that? I got in contact with the theatre club folks at the end of 2023, mostly to commiserate but also to help offer my support for them getting a new space. As for the status of them getting that new space, I’m not sure. But, I know that it wasn’t just one club that undertook a massive upheaval because of these renovations.
And, let’s be honest, when it comes to spending money on campus … Why does it have to be the HUB? Now look, I’ve seen pictures of what the renovations will look like. I cannot deny the plans look enticing. I’m sure the students of 2026 and beyond will enjoy it at the expense of graduating seniors; that’s great and all. But really, the HUB was perfectly fine! In the three and a half years, I’ve been at Moravian, I’ve never thought to myself, “The HUB is really old and could use a renovation.”
But, I tell you what, I have thought that way about other buildings on campus! A prime example of this is the plumbing in Memorial Hall. That building is where I do my work study, and the toilet is constantly flooding due to outdated plumbing. Why can’t Moravian fix these more pertinent issues first? No, instead, it’s all about the alumni donors, not the current students. When some of the Moravian donors came back after a couple of decades and said, “Hey, I noticed the HUB hasn’t changed much,” that made the administration at this school self-conscious. They felt a need to solve something that wasn’t a problem instead of tackling their building’s actual problems.
As I alluded to in the previous paragraph, the group that gets screwed over the most with this renovation is my current class of graduating seniors. The class of 2024 are the ones who will only see this renovation come through as alumni, not as actual students. And, here’s what’s unique about our class … remember four years ago? Yep, we were the COVID class of 2020! We were the ones who had our graduations and senior proms screwed up by a global pandemic. But, don’t worry, Moravian will make it up to us. There are prom tickets … if you’re willing to pay 80 bucks! And as for our graduation, well, of course, it’s basically by a construction site, given what’s happening to the HUB.
This senior class that had to deal with a global pandemic in their high school to college transition, now has to deal with this. Our center of campus life for the last three and a half years now has a big ol’’ fence around it and giant barricades for anywhere that’s not the Star or B&G. A once vibrant part of our campus community is reduced to a place only to get food. And because of this school’s misguided priorities, it’s the seniors who will suffer the most.
