A few thoughts on community space

Over the weekend, I was walking through Sophia Garden when a woman who teaches at Loyola came over to talk about the garden's impending closing. She told me she has mixed feelings about the closing because she has been composting there for the last three years, but she also knows that Loyola has been expanding and needs more space. She told me about Loyola's commitment to green technology, mentioning a new building that is LEED certified with lots of green space.

This conversation has me thinking about the difference between community space and campus space. I think it is great that Loyola has built green space and efficient buildings into its campus, but this is not a substitute for Sophia. I have met countless neighbors, students and now a faculty member in the space because it encourages a diverse range of people to come together. I believe that our neighborhood is enriched by Loyola's student population and that the student population is enriched by the diversity of the neighborhood. Public spaces allow for these two populations to intermix.

As a graduate student at Columbia College, I know how insular academia can be. I hope that Loyola can recognize the ways community spaces like Sophia Garden provide a location for the diverse paths of a single community to overlap.