The roads around campus make it easy for students and faculty to travel safely to their destinations. However, when the roads are blocked off at random or for an event, both campus drivers and pedestrians are left in a frustrating position.  

Recently, the ULM Alumni Association hosted an event called “Wine Over Water” that featured several vendors catering different types of wine and food to attendees aged 21 and over. Setup for the event started a day or two prior. When leaving Bayou Suites, I noticed that the roads were blocked off from the end of the bridge closest to Schultze all the way to before the parking lot for University Suites.  

While inconvenient if I wanted to drive in that direction, I was still able to walk along the bridge as usual. However, I did almost trip over the lights they were setting up, receiving a judgmental look from one of the people setting up the event.  

As they began to further set up, it became more difficult to navigate my way across the bridge. There were chairs and tables placed on the part of the bridge that is dedicated to those walking, and maneuvering around them alongside students passing by became an annoying task. Eventually, other students and I realized that since no cars were driving on the bridge, we could walk on the road.  

Soon, the road also started to become a place for chairs and tables, meaning that we needed to weave around them as well. The day of the event brought out more items placed on the ground as vendors set up their tables, making it even harder to navigate our way to the other side of the bridge without nearly bumping into someone.  

Once the event eventually started, the space was quickly filled. When my friends and I were headed in that direction after leaving the Hangar, we were running into people before we had even fully reached the bridge. Once we got on the bridge, what used to be an easy stroll across the concrete was now a nearly impossible task of weaving through several booths and people lacking spatial awareness.  

I, of course, understand that the walking bridge exists, so there was an option to avoid that experience. However, there are few people that come to mind who would opt to go out of their way to walk across that bridge. One studnet spoke about their experience driving during this time.  

“I was trying to quickly grab to-go from the caf on my one break between class and work, but the blockade sent me down a path that took 8 extra minutes,” pharmacy student Emma Sulivan said. “It feels insulting to shut down all of that for something that doesn’t benefit the students.” 

Aside from my personal difficulties with this, I could not imagine that those attending the event were too fond of non-attendees constantly interrupting.  

Students with mobility aids might also have found it even more challenging to comfortably weave through the guests.  

If this is how they have done it in the past, then I understand not wanting to break tradition. But if you are going to create an event that many students cannot attend, do not inconvenience us in the process. (Not related, but they need to start warning us about fireworks.) 

As Elsa said, however, the past is in the past, so I shall let it go. But now I bring us to the present, where random green cones block off one entrance to the parking lot on the side of Schultze.  

As someone who often feels lazy, whenever I need to go to my job or the store, I drive to Schultze beforehand. As I have stated, I live in Bayou Suites. So around April 23rd, when I noticed a row of green cones blocking the closest entryway, I had to make the difficult decision to park in front of Schultze instead.  

However, as someone who is already scared of reversing, reversing into a driving lane is quite a terror. The blocked-off side is also the one with the ‘One-Way’ sign. So, if the sign says to enter that way, then we should be able to enter from that direction.  

The parking spaces are also built for you to turn right into the lot and then left/right into your parking spot, not to turn left into the parking lot. Even though I use gas like a much wealthier man, driving to the other end of the lot feels like a waste.  

On April 25th, it appeared that someone was equally bothered as I was because there was a car-sized gap in the cones. I am considering coming in behind them and stacking them into a neat pile off to the side.  

No one to whom I brought this up knows the reasoning for these cones, making their presence even more odd. I assume they placed them there for some event that students knew about and then forgot to remove them.  

While both instances of blockades are not major, especially the latter, the frustration is still there. Finals are approaching quickly; students should not be put in a position where they have to combat extra instances of stress and inconvenience.