Creighton University needs to start taking proactive measures in dealing with disasters on campus. Last week’s flooding in the Reinert-Alumni Memorial Library is just one of many issues that occurred this semester which has resulted in many damages to fix.

There is already enough that needs to be updated at Creighton before even thinking about the affects of disasters like flooding and gas leaks.

The west side of campus needs to see improvement in the older buildings. Dowling Hall, (the humanities building), for example, needs some electrical work to supply more power outlets for students and faculty.

Creighton Hall is another building that could use some upgrades. Often, these older buildings can become hot no matter what the temperature is outside.

I have had classes in Creighton Hall in the dead of winter where students are wearing shorts and T-shirts because they will overheat in Creighton Hall’s classrooms if they are in proper winter layers. Warm months can be even worse as the air conditioning is often not adequate to compensate for higher temperatures. Buildings like this are in desperate need of new heating and

cooling systems.

Adding to the list of problems on campus, the residence halls — for freshmen, especially — have problems with plumbing.

In my four years here, Kiewit Hall has flooded twice. In 2012 it was because of a student, but in 2014 the blame was on the pipes themselves. McGloin has had a pipe burst as well in the last few years. These are places that students live and hold all their belongings; it is a high risk that students shouldn’t have to take that their possessions will become

water damaged.

Aside from physical changes that are needed, there is also the wi-fi available on campus. There is nothing more distracting in doing homework then when the Internet goes down for a bit and one has to wait for it

to reconnect.

Many teachers utilize different forms of technology in order to teach class. When the computers are not working or the projection screen does not turn on, it takes away from class time.

Many of these issues can be fixed by updating the buildings, but Creighton needs to be willing to invest in it.

Realistically, this would likely require some large donations from alumni —which can be difficult to achieve — but it is a deserving cause for the quality

of education.

As a top university in the Midwest Region, it is sad that we have so many issues with our school. We should be taking pride in it and keeping the campus updated. The longer the university takes to update campus, the more likely it will be that disasters happen.

It is well known that many of the pipes are older, and this leads to them being more likely to burst. Flooding can do horrible damage that adds up fast in expenses. Updating the plumbing can help avoid this problem.

Creighton redid Brandeis’s entrance a year ago. This was needed to make it more handicap accessible for the main dining hall.

The Harper Center was updated and the Heider College of Business moved there. The Hedier College of Business could have stayed in their former building and the money used to renovate the Harper Center could have been invested into reparing the older buildings.

Athletics have had the most updates and improvements. They are well established now with buildings and, therefore, no more should be done on the west side of campus among the sports complexes and business building. Attention needs to be turned away from that area and directed towards the main part

of campus.

If Creighton does not act soon, it will only be a matter of time before another incident happens that causes a good amount of damages. The university needs to stop taking a defensive position and start playing offense.

While it might be easier and cheaper for Creighton to patch problems as they come up, in the long run the university will lose money on the fact that it is essentially placing bandages all over campus that will fall off and need to be addressed again.

It would be cheaper and more effective to put in money now to see more financially efficient returns on the quality of campus infrastructure. This is going to be the only way to keep the campus being a great university

for everyone.