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