For students living in Mountainview College, watching others battle their way down the slippery dirt path to Lot W over lunch at the Appalachian Collegiate Center is a favorite winter pass time. But future residents may not get to experience the entertainment if a resolution passed by the Student Assembly last night pans out.
Marilyn Sanchez/Contributing Photographer
Members of the Student Assembly, faculty and residents of Mountainview College are working together to have the dirt path from the Appalachian Collegiate Center, Mountainview’s dining hall, to the central campus paved.
Although the path is convenient, it can become dangerous to travel depending on weather. A sign reading “For Your Safety Use Sidewalk” reminds students of these dangers.
At Monday’s Assembly meeting, Mountainview College representative Katie Howard authored an ammendment requesting “the SA president to work with administration, Physical Facilities, Mountainview College and others necessary to create a legitimized path.”
The resolution was passed unanimously by the Assembly.
Jordan Stern, the president of the Mountainview College, said the initiative to have the path paved first began last year when a group of students led by Bob Emerson, the faculty master of Mountainview, came together to find a permanent solution to pave the path.
To determine the daily traffic of the path, the group surveyed 309 Mountainview residents.
According to Stern, the results showed that 90 percent of those students use the path on a daily basis.
Another survey found an average of 85 students walked up and down the path.
The group came up with four solutions, according to Stern, including a stairway along the path that would lead to Lot W on campus, as well as an elevated pathway that touches the corner of the Hinman co-recreational field.
According to Paul Moore, president of Mountainview College’s Hunter Hall, a town hall style meeting between hall government leaders, Physical Facilities representatives and students is scheduled for 9 p.m. today in Appalachin College Center room 111, where solutions for the path will be discussed.
Twice over the past two years, administration has arranged for a fence to be erected at the top of the path, blocking the route from students. But each time the students have torn the fence down.
According to Student Association President Adam Amit, the path should be paved because of safety concerns, including the conditions of the path during harsh weather conditions like rain, snow and ice, as well as the risk of the path’s steep inclination.
Students in Mountainview and those who generally use the path are, according to Amit, “looking for a complete and final answer — a paved, safe and easily accessible path.”
He added that some administrative officials and students have recently met to discuss the possibilities of having the path paved.
Miles Merwin, a junior psychobiology major, created a Facebook group called “People who like to watch people fall down the Mountain View Shortcut,” which currently has 143 members.
“Honestly, I started the group because I think it’s hilarious to watch people attempt the path,” Merwin said. “Almost everyone in Moutainview has faced that path at least once in the winter, and even if we’ve fallen, we still go back.”
Merwin also said he thinks the dirt path is the clearest, shortest way to get to campus for Mountainview students, which is probably why it is used so often.
Other students expressed similar sentiments.
“As it gets cold outside the path becomes really hard to use, but everyone uses it anyway,” said Nil-Marie Perez, a senior journalism exchange student.