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Good Ol’ MSU

24. April 2005 | Category Interests

Had the honor of visiting MSU, Mankato for the first time in three since I graduated. What drew me back was the opportunity to be a science fair judge for the first time. I had gotten requests in the previous years to do so, but always had something going on the weekend they had the event, but this year it worked out. I has somewhat interested to see how the judging went after years in elementary school going to the local science fairs.

All in all, the judging and fair were okay. I would have liked to have been given more time to do the actual judging and view other projects, but with 1300 exhibits, it is somewhat impractical.
After the judging was done, I strolled about campus to see how things looked and/or had changed. The biggest change probably was the new CSU revamp, which is more open and welcoming for a gateway into the university, but really doesn’t face any particular avenue or access to campus, which is offputting, but fits in well with the similarily ill designed Taylor Center. Lots of new, hip furniture with oodles of computer stations and workspaces make it appear they actually thought about the present and future a bit, which is nice.

The other big change was the University’s dedication to it’s athletic facilities, which was well underway when I finished there, but still seems to be progressing. I know they have faced financial hurdles with the State over funding, but by the time they’re done they’ll have pretty much everything sports related brand spanking new.

It’s kind of pathetic that sports play such a large role at MSU. They are only Division I in hockey, so it’s overkill for all the other programs. All that money could be going to education and tuitions that continue to cost more and for what? So they money can go to sports facilities? But then again, the local billionaires that helped spur the growth probably wouldn’t want to be associated with anything boring like a science wing that’s named anything other than Trafton.

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