It has been almost one year since that fateful day…that day we went to class and learned that they were going to pave the lawn. It was the first time in four years at DU that I saw students get riled up about something other than hockey, and I was excited about it.

Of course it was completely wrong that DU was going to encroach on the little green space that we did have, but no one really ever seemed passionate about getting screwed over before.

I remember springtime on the lawn with all of the festivals, always being able to find someone you knew, and the temptation of choosing not to go to sociology at 1 p.m. Now with the lawn gone, I wish I would have skipped more because hanging out on asphalt isn’t too enticing.

Are we back to our apathetic selves or has no one noticed that it is no longer just a “temporary” parking lot? It has grown in size, shape and permanence. Our beloved temporary parking lot has turned into a gated community.

The fenced area around the parking lot will not be re-landscaped until the parking lot is removed in a few years.

We were told only half of Driscoll lawn would be used for parking and now the majority of it is construction storage space, excavation for the law school, equipment parking and large piles of brown dirt. The undergraduates didn’t get this many explanations last year for why the lot had to be there, but I guess as time went on, more green space was needed.

I think our campus is too accustomed to being treated like this. A large part of the grass on Asbury is now sheltered by shiny fences and I feel that my walk to class each day is feeling more like a walk down an aisle at Home Depot. It was supposed to be a small parking lot, but now you can’t directly walk from the Coors Fitness Center to Penrose Library. Our world is not made of concrete, which could be why people enjoy it. Our campus shouldn’t be made of concrete either.