Editorial: 301 High St. is an accident waiting to happen

There is an accident waiting to happen outside of Rowan University’s 301 High St. building.

The latest construction project on Rowan’s campus and the surrounding area is just the latest example of a lack of foresight by university officials when pushing the campus’ expansion at the expense of the students already attending the university.

Since Glassboro stopped allowing students to park along High Street – having made the street permit parking only – everyone traveling to the new College of Communication & Creative Arts building has been forced to walk. The problem is that there is no safe way to reach the building from anywhere in the surrounding area.

The adjacent stretch of Mick Drive is consumed by an active construction zone where crews work everyday on the new Rowan Boulevard parking garage. The result is a closed sidewalk that funnels everybody to the other side of the road where the sidewalk does not continue. Students must then walk in the street, where they are forced even further into traffic by pickup trucks and cars belonging to construction crews taking up what little exists of the shoulder.

On the same street, just past the construction vehicles is an entrance to the limited parking lot behind the building. Cars often cannot see students coming from behind trucks and cars along the sidewalk-less street and near collisions involving cars and students are nearly a daily sight.

On the High Street side of the building the construction site has shut down another sidewalk, although that’s not the problem. When approaching the building from anywhere that requires crossing the street, there is absolutely no way to do so safely near the building. There are no crosswalks from one side of the street to the other on any part of the intersection where 301 is located. Students are forced to race traffic in order to reach their classes, often twice to get to the proper corner, risking their life every time.

There are bigger problems facing the university. However, that building has been holding classes since fall 2015 and there has been no addition of a crosswalk yet. The construction started over the summer has only exacerbated the problem. When opening a new building on the other side of campus, currently isolated from the rest of the university’s academic buildings, making sure that students can safely reach the door should be the primary thought.

There is an accident coming if something is not done soon to make sure that people can reach it safely. Whether a crosswalk is installed, or students are diverted to a street with a complete sidewalk, some new avenue must be created to ensure the safety of students on their way to class.

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