Trust is a great thing to have, but at the same time, it is very hard to earn. I suspect the university is having a hard time gaining or keeping the students’ trust. At least, it has a hard time keeping mine. Granted, I am only one person, but I suspect I am not alone.

Now that the whole fiasco with the opening of the library is done, we can look back and be happy the library is done and open. Everyone was honest, and it was opened close to the original opening date.

Now look closer … the library may be open, but it’s not done. On the surface, it looks like the school got a long-term project done only five weeks behind schedule … but that’s only if you don’t count the incomplete atrium and the nonexistent south entrance.

Eastern seems to have a long-standing tradition of projects not getting done on time. Remember the gates in front of Old Main that were supposed to be done in August before we came back for school? Those weren’t done until December. And what about the food court?

And since Eastern has been burned so many times in getting construction projects done, they have resorted to not giving out possible dates of completion for these remaining tasks.

Maybe they haven’t said this in so many words, but why else would they not give us this information?

I can’t say I blame them, but this is no way to regain the faith of the students.

If anything else, it is making them appear more shady to students. These big projects going on require the administration to know what is going on. If they don’t know, then that is just irresponsible. If they do know and are not telling us, then that is just dishonest.

The school needs to learn from its mistakes, but refusing to divulge possible completion dates is not the way to make things better.

We will soon be embarking on a new construction project even bigger than the library. It is supposed to be done in three years, but then again, the gates in front of Old Main were supposed to be done in three months, and the project took twice as long.

Will the administration refuse to tell us completion dates throughout the entire time the Fine Arts Building is under construction?

Let’s learn a few lessons from the recent events, and we’ll be better off.

I feel bad for those students who will be unlucky enough to see both the tail end of the library construction and will then have to deal with the construction on the Fine Arts Building. But maybe even those freshmen who may be here three to four more years won’t even see its completion. While I’m sad I won’t see the building, I’m glad I’ll only have to deal with its construction for one year.

While serving as campus editor for The Daily Eastern News in the fall 2001, I got to know in depth all the construction projects on campus and the reason for all of their delays. I realize many of them were not the university’s fault. The gates in front of Old Main that I keep talking about were delayed because those working on the project thought the gates would not hold up in severe weather. The latest delay in the library is failure to deliver materials needed to complete the south entrance.

If those involved would just be honest with the students, the students also would understand. If the university could just admit these delays up front when they are discovered, the university would regain the trust of the people they are here to serve.