Eliyahu Gasson | opinions editor

Much of my three years at Duquesne University has been defined by constant renovations and new construction on campus. I got to watch the construction of a new residence hall and academic building in the form of McGinley Hall and the School of Osteopathic Medicine. I got to be one of the first to live in the update St. Martin Hall. I got to see the installation of a big beautiful screen in the Union Atrium and experience renovations to the fifth and third floor of Gumberg Library, and soon I’ll get to experience a renovated fourth floor as well.

Perhaps I’m naive, but I’ve been impressed with most of the construction on campus. I like the bold illuminated signs that tell you what building you’re looking at, and the colorful way-finder signs around campus, but I think there’s more that needs to be done.

Duquesne is obviously limited in the renovations and construction projects it can undertake based on a number of factors: Money, zoning and general practicality dictate what the university is able to do to improve the infrastructure on campus. But my dreams about what can be aren’t limited by these factors. So allow me to fantasize about a world where I am the dictator of Duquesne University with unlimited funds and nobody to stop me.
Holographic concierge system

Fisher Hall’s entrance from campus is on the sixth floor, and the building is laid out like a labyrinth. You can enter the Union on the third, second or first floor. College Hall has entrances on the second and first floors. All of these little idiosyncrasies lend to a campus that can be tough for newcomers to navigate. Sure, you can put the name of a building into Google Maps and ask for walking directions, but Google Maps doesn’t know that you can ride the Power Center elevator up to campus from Forbes Avenue. The aforementioned way-finder signs are nice, but I often get the feeling that fewer people are reading these days due to shorter attention spans; a product of the popularity of TikTok and similar short form video apps.

To help new members of the Duquesne community, my first act as dictator would be the installation of informative holographic A.I. guides on campus that can provide information and directions to anyone curious enough to ask. Imagine the Duke (by which I mean our blue lion mascot) or university President Ken Gormley across campus, always ready to provide the most efficient routes to any building from wherever you are. Why stop at navigation? Maybe the A.I. holograms can recommend the best spots to study on campus based on a student’s needs, or the tastiest bites available from Duquesne Dining. Every corner on campus would have one of these futuristic concierges, adding convenience never before seen on any college campus. We could create a new computer science and media class to design the system — a great learning opportunity for students.
Transportation

I can’t help but feel like our campus is sorely missing escalators. Imagine the combined utility and photogenicity an escalator would offer in, say, the Union atrium or Duquesne Towers going up to the Hogan Dining Center. There’s something about having an escalator in a space that makes a building feel modern, like a shopping mall or an airport.

And while we’re installing escalators, why not moving walkways. To get up to the Bluff from Forbes Avenue without getting winded, one has to rely on either the Power Center, Forbes Garage, Rockwell Hall or Fisher Hall elevators. Moving walkways on all the sidewalks going up to campus would allow students to reserve valuable energy that should be used for studying. We could also install the moving walkways in some of the skywalks across campus. Doing so could save students a lot of time and help them get to their next class faster.

Let’s keep adding transportation options on campus. Say, hypothetically, you lived in Assumption Hall in the furthest south-east corner of campus and your first class of the day is in Liebermann Hall in the furthest north-west corner, bordering Downtown. That’s quite a walk, made worse by the bitter, dry and frigid weather we’ve been experiencing lately. My Duquesne would have its own microtransit system. Students would be able to schedule a ride from their dorm building to their classroom via an app on their smartphone. The alternative to this would be a subway with stations at every building, though even in my fantasy with unlimited funds, this is too expensive and impractical. We all know that microtransit is the future of public transportation in the United States.
Breaking records

The Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh is the tallest educational building in the western hemisphere. Why should they get all the glory when we Dukes know deep down that ours is the better school? What better way to show our superiority than to turn College Hall into a 43-story building, one floor higher than the Cathedral of Learning?

As well as having bragging rights against Pitt, a taller College Hall would serve as a great recruitment tool. The views of the city from the top floors would inspire anyone lucky enough to have an office in the building. Classrooms on the new floors would still be in the center of the building. I see no reason, to change that feature.