Bryan College Triangle

by Daniel Jackson
Staff Writer

The Grassy Bowl as of 8:15 a.m. on April 13.

The Grassy Bowl became the victim of a vandalizing prank overnight on Tuesday, April 12.

Early risers found the trees around the grassy bowl and near Rudd Auditorium strung up with fluttering strands of toilet paper.

Around 7 a.m., Doug Schott, director of the Physical Plant, sent nearly all his employees to the grassy bowl to clean up after the pranksters. After collecting what they could from the ground, the Physical Plant employees used a boom lift to collect the paper. They finished just as students began making their way into chapel.

Last night’s prank followed on the heels of an another prank to Bryan property. The roundabout of the new entrance was egged last Friday.

Schott personally stopped his weekend bass fishing plans to grab a bucket of water to clean the egg from the roundabout.

“I think the technical word for it is ‘stupid’”, said Schott, referring to the egging.

As of now, the college does not know who or whom the pranksters are.

Dear Editor,

I need to clarify my previous note. When I wrote it, I understood that the Triangle wanted to do an article on alumni opinions of the proposed changes to the Grassy Bowl. I wrote hastily because I did not expect my email to be published as a letter to the editor and because I have very limited Internet access.

The statement “To me, this decision is only another indication that the administration cares very little about what Bryan students want their school to be” is accusatory, too broad, and vague. I apologize for it. Those words are not exactly what I meant.

There are many good and wise people whom I respect in the Bryan administration. I am thankful that, in this situation, my claim that they care very little has proven untrue: they have listened to students and alumni and have decided to preserve the Grassy Bowl.

However, I do believe there is a communication problem between students and the administration. The task of making Bryan College financially sustainable has been difficult and complex and has involved much change. Change is hard. In general, people are afraid of it and often opposed to it. It is naive to expect any group of people to be supportive of changing something they deeply care about without first clearly explaining the need for change and the proposed solutions. Wise leaders go a step further: they listen to the responses to their plans and consider those responses carefully.

The Bryan administration does not sensitively introduce and explain change to students and yet still expects student support. This is unreasonable. Moreover, in the seven years I’ve been associated with the school, I’ve sensed that few in the Bryan administration know what student concerns about change actually are. This apparent lack of knowledge seems to indicate a lack of concern and respect for student thoughts and feelings. I recognize, however, that lack of knowledge does not necessarily mean lack of concern. As I wrote before, though, on a purely pragmatic level, it would behoove the Bryan administration to make an effort to communicate more effectively with students. Students do become alumni.

Faults of communication are not often one-sided. Bryan students complain and criticize much, yet do little. To Bryan students: if you really care about your school, act. Talk to SGA. Run for SGA. Realize that the people in charge of Bryan College are exactly that—people. Imperfect, but for the most part, really trying to do what they believe is right for the school and deserving of your respect.

But we know that listening is at least as important as speaking when we try to communicate. My pastor talks about the need to listen beyond the words a person uses, to his heart. As an academic institution, Bryan College rightly stresses the need for precise and appropriate language. This is certainly important, but I’ve learned that always demanding precision and even propriety in language often has many negative consequences—ranging from quickly forgotten misunderstanding to truly damaging verbal interchanges—and often actually cripples real communication.

So I challenge the whole Bryan community and myself to try to listen beyond words and to listen to learn—whether from young or old, educated or uneducated.

Sincerely,

Emily Reitnauer

by Daniel Jackson
Staff Writer

The people worrying their noodles over the proposed changes to the Grassy Bowl can rest in peace.

Due to wide protest by alumni of Bryan College, the Grassy Bowl will be saved from becoming an intramural field in the Vision 2020 changes—for now.

During homecoming, the administration unveiled to alumni the proposed improvements connected to Vision 2020. One of the improvements included flattening the Grassy Bowl into an intramural field.

Proposed changes to the Grassy Bowl which included flattening the bottom of it will not be implemented as of right now./ Triangle photo by Daniel Jackson

Having many fond memories of the grassy bowl, many of the alumni did not want to see it taken away from the overall architecture of Bryan. Nancy Ruark, alum of 1980, created a Facebook page called “Save the Grassy Bowl at Bryan College” to facilitate a place where people could express their opinion over the Grassy Bowl issue.

In a matter of 10 hours, the group expanded to 185 members. According to David Tromanhauser, alumni director and 1980 graduate, alumni have joined the group and expressed support for the conservation of the Grassy Bowl in more numbers, by far, than students and faculty. Read full story »

Dear editor,
My husband, Nathaniel Goggans, and I graduated from Bryan right after the Administration Building’s fire (now called Mercer Hall). That fire sent the college into a fast track of their 20-year plan for expanding and updating the campus and facilities. So many things have changed on campus since we left there in 2000 and, we admit, at times it has been hard to see the changes. However, we recognize it would be ridiculous to ask any business or organization to not grow and certainly not because of mere nostalgia or sentimentality.

Whenever we endeavor to build something new we are in fact tearing down or changing something old(er). Overall we have been impressed with the changes at the school. They have updated and modernized, trying to keep the integrity of the old while increasing the beauty and function of the new. The Triangle is a good example: it is safer without traffic and the area has remained peaceful and pretty. Its function, if it has changed, has improved. They made it a better version of itself.

One of the most natural beauties of the campus has always been the Grassy Bowl. Before the new entrance, it was the first thing people saw when they came to campus. We remember Chapel Speakers mentioning the awe they had when they saw it and the view from it. That is the kind of awe described in Romans 1:20 (New American Standard Bible): “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

This kind of awe brings glory to God rather than man. The grassy bowl, in our opinion, is the one feature of the campus that sets it apart from all other schools and makes it special. Every school has dorms, classrooms, ball fields, gyms, and cafeterias, but no other has the Grassy Bowl or the view from it. Like the Triangle, the Grassy Bowl is an integral part of the identity of Bryan College.

We respect the current administration’s work and drive to make Bryan College grow and compete with other universities and colleges. Nathaniel and I strive, as alumni, to work with them in support of that goal. We honor them. Many of them were there when we were and we would not be who we are today without the education and experiences we received while at Bryan College. That being said, we hope that the administration will listen to their current students’ and alumni’s thoughts about the possibility of flattening the Grassy Bowl. That particular change would violate the integrity of the old and would not, in our personal opinion, improve its function.

Respectfully,

Julie (Barfield) Goggans

Dear editor,
The Grassy Bowl is unique on the Bryan campus–there is no other space like it. It is striking and beautiful–in my opinion, the most important part of the campus’ natural beauty. Bryan students use the Grassy Bowl regularly for recreation and study; if it goes away, there is no place on campus that can replace it (especially once the new fine arts building is built behind Rudd). I don’t think that Bryan students would flock to an athletics field the way that they now flock to the Grassy Bowl. As a student, I often went to the Grassy Bowl to pray and journal, watch the sunset and get some perspective. It is still a special place for me, one that I like to visit when I’m on campus, and I suspect I am only one of a long line of alumni and students who feel the same.

I am frankly quite appalled at the very idea of turning the Grassy Bowl into an intramural field. I am disappointed with the Bryan administration for even considering such an idea without consulting the student body. An intramural field would be for the students more than anyone else–if they don’t want it, why spend precious resources to create it? The soccer practice fields have worked for years, and the YMCA field is also available. To me, this decision is only another indication that the administration cares very little about what Bryan students want their school to be. The administration needs to realize that students turn into alumni, and that enthusiastic alumni support is essential for the health of a school like Bryan.

Emily Reitnauer

Dear editor,
My name is Jared Reitnauer. I graduated from Bryan in 2008 and I recently heard about the plans to flatten the grassy bowl.

I feel this is a bad move by Bryan. The grassy bowl is essential to the beauty of the campus. To have undeveloped areas of natural beauty such as the grassy bowl play a large role in drawing students outdoors to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation. A developed- flattened field does not have the same attractive quality as the grassy bowl. No one goes to the practice soccer field to study or read. Why? Because it is not beautiful. They go to the grassy bowl because it is where college life can feel like it is not entirely separate from the “real world”. College students are living in the real world, and connecting with nature is an essential part of helping to remind them of this, and to live as if this time is spent in the real world, dealing with real things, not just academic concepts in their heads.

I am strong against turning the grassy bowl into any kind of developed field. I believe the grassy bowl is functioning now in the best way that it possibly can for the benefit of the student body.

Sincerely,

Jared Reitnauer

Proposed changes to Grassy Bowl may alter long-loved escape/Triangle photo by Lana Douglas

by Kaity Kopeski
Editor-in-chief

Bryan College is in the process of revising the Vision 2020 master plan, according to Tim Hostetler, vice president of operations. This revised plan includes flattening the bottom of the Grassy Bowl to use for intramural fields.

According to Hostetler, the already flat part at the bottom of the Grassy Bowl would be pushed back about 100 ft towards the president’s home and the alumni building, making the flat space about 150′x300′, which is about the size of a football field. Read full story »