Editor’s Note: This is an opinion piece and does not represent the opinion of Beaver’s Digest. This op-ed reflects the personal opinions of the writer. The article uses language that some may deem offensive. 

Every time I turn around on Oregon State University’s campus, there seems to be yet another construction site popping out of nowhere. 

Let’s face it: Construction on campus is terribly inconvenient. With over 30,000 students on campus during the academic year, rushing to get to class by walking, biking or riding scooters, why on Earth would the university not move the majority construction to summertime, when population and foot traffic is at its lowest?

On the website, the university has marked 12 active construction sites, but they didn’t include the smaller projects, like the one between Milam and Gilkey Hall. So, counting 12 larger construction projects and however many smaller inconveniences, OSU is feeling less like a home of education and more like an obstacle course of chain-link fencing and detours.

The construction site on Washington Way has been active for over two years. On top of that, another site popped up on Monroe Avenue that will be the future home of the Jen-Hsun Huang & Lori Mills Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex.

The website linked above can explain the improvements the construction is intending to make, and also give an estimated timeline as to when the projects will end. What the website still cannot explain is why the projects have to continue throughout the whole year. 

Apart from myself, several students find the constant construction impacting their lives in ways they did not sign up for. 

Kourtney Denney, a third-year forest operations management major at OSU, mentioned that she wished to know how the excess construction is being funded. 

“I’m kind of curious if our tuition dollars are paying for this.” Denney said. 

Those who live on campus find it particularly difficult to have patience with the construction as it impacts their day-to-day life. Denney lives in OSU’s Halsell Hall dormitory, and her main frustrations concern the construction that has popped up on Main Street. 

“We can hear them arrive to the location, talk and yap with their coworkers for an hour,” Denney said. “It wakes us all up.” 

Denney said that not only is her living space impacted, but her basic life activities are inconvenienced by the construction. 

“I can’t get my car out of the parking lot sometimes because they just block it off,” Denney said. 

Madeliene Krueger, a third-year apparel design major, said the construction on Washington Way is blocking her from providing rides for her friends who live at the dorms located in that area, like Halsell or Bloss Hall.

“Every time I go to pick my friends up from Halsell or from the other side, like from Austin, I can’t go through one way so I have to go around,” Krueger said. 

Since the start of the 2024–2025 school year, some students have felt OSU’s campus has had an increase in construction. 

In an email, Erin Martin, director of communications and web in OSU’s Finance and Administration Office, didn’t agree with the characterization of a “spike” in construction, particularly citing the Washington Way project as being over two years long, but did give reasons for some of the construction on campus. 

“Washington Way has been under construction for two years now, improving the road corridor, adding better sidewalks and lighting and a dedicated cycle track. The project moved around the corridor as work was completed,” Martin said in an email. 

Martin did also acknowledge that some construction may be affecting students’ access to their classes, specifically mentioning the work on 17th Street and Washington Way. 

“(This construction) is highly visible and may be impacting students trying to get to class. This work is part of a steam line replacement that provides steam heat and hot water to the residence halls in that area. Infrastructure improvements such as these are common on an older campus such as the Corvallis campus,” Martin said. 

Knowing the cause of some of the construction is helpful, however, it’s hard to deny that consistently having to learn detours to classes students pay to attend is not only disruptive but problematic.

“(The construction) blocks off all of my ways to my classes, which adds at least five to 10 minutes on the way to Peavy (Forest Science Center),” Denney said. 

College campuses are a home away from home, as well as a student’s place of learning, and patience is running thin at the amount of detours required to do simple tasks. 

“That shit is fucking inconvenient.” Krueger said.

Information regarding campus construction is accessible to students via the website, and through campus notification systems. By searching “Active Projects” on OSU websites, students can find more information. 

Project aims, construction and project managers, and a list of improvements being made can be found at most of these resources. What I could not find in the details was any reason behind the scheduling of the construction.

“I get if maybe there’s a gas leak or something, and you’re repairing it. But … the road (Washington Way) just got done, and why not pick a more convenient time to do it? Like the summer, when no one’s fucking here,” Krueger said.

This is a valid question. The administration should schedule the majority of construction during the summer, when campus activity is low, instead of continuing it during peak population months when the weather is also at its worst. It’s inconsiderate to the students, staff and anyone else who considers OSU’s campus a second home.