While trying my best to get from one end of campus to the other in a short amount of time, the dilemma always arises of whether I should cross Evans on the street or brave the walk across Driscoll. I generally choose Driscoll based on basic assumptions, the walk across the street is obviously longer.
However, Driscoll turns out to be the wrong choice. In fact, it is more like wandering into the middle of an ambush rather than taking a shorter route.
The line of tables, only a few of which are clubs or other school-based gatherings, is a row of vultures that don’t seem to notice the haste of the folks crossing the bridge. Instead of respecting the visible hurry of the students, all these solicitors see are college students ripe for picking.
These groups range from banks to religious groups; sometimes they are even random jewlers. They all crowd to hand out cards or samples and try to convince the hurried students to buy their product or join their bank.
Many of these organizations then proceed to shove fliers in the hands of annoyed students, most of which end up in the trash can at the end of the bridge.
However, in light of all this, the Driscoll Bridge can be a great opportunity to grant awareness to the DU community. It serves to market DU events and is a place where clubs can recruit new members. Further, it is a critical and practical point in most DU student’s lives, as it is one of the most accessible crossing points on campus. All these benefits of the Driscoll bridge really make it a great thing for the DU community, primarily because it cuts out the long walk across Evans and allows for clubs to advertise and recruit.
However, when there are more than just DU-based groups featured on the bridge, it turns convenience into a trap for solicitation. Overall, I think the groups on Driscoll should be limited to just DU groups. Otherwise, the tempting market of hundreds of students walking in one concentrated area is too alluring for outside businesses and institutions to resist, making the bridge a cluttered area of annoying solicitors.
This ultimately prompts us students to dread the walk across. It is time DU acknowledges the hundreds of marketable people crossing Driscoll are not wallets, they are students trying to get to class on tight schedules.
