While this may seem insignificant, often it is the little things that truly make the college experience, and for many students, stepping into the Sundry shop was one small way of participating in university life. Not only could one check out the new decorations that Terri Atkinson, the well-known Sundry employee, had put up for the given season, but he or she could even take a short step back in time. The dozens of pictures from Halloween and Pledge Nights of years past that covered one wall had become a fun, informal record of recent history.

The explanation offered by ARAMARK is that the shop was too cluttered to leave the decorations in place. This is indeed true; simply not enough floor space exists. But the removal of a collection of photographs on the wall or the occasional skeleton at Halloween or Santa at Christmas does next to nothing to solve the problem. Instead, the reorganization of Sundry over the past summer narrowed the aisles in the store to the point where navigating through them has become an adventure. Perhaps this is the area where changes really need to be made.

Bigger issues are also at stake. All too often, a rift exists between students and staff on campus, but Sundry provided an exception to this rule by giving everyone a chance to interact and celebrate the highlights of the semester together. Limiting the expression and personality of employees leaves them with few means by which to interact with the students, and a valuable and all too scarce sense of community is sacrificed.

As we work on cultivating new activities for future generations of students to enjoy, let's be careful not to lose sight of the valuable aspects of campus community that we already have in place.