As a Luther alum, two recent, surprise livestreams held by Luther caught my attention, getting me invested in what possible growth for the college could be hiding behind the announcements. Tuning in to both, my number one hope was that the long overdue Main Building renovation would finally be going ahead after endless talks that spanned my four years in Decorah. But alas, in both cases, it turned out to be large sums of money dumped into the Regents Center sports complex.
To me, growth at Luther is never negative, and it was impressive to see gifts hit both $2 million and $10 million, the latter being the largest gift in Luther history. But as an alumni, I can’t help but have mixed feelings about where the charity landed. After living in several residences on campus and seeing the news regarding Brandt and Olson, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for me, or anyone in the Luther community, to want to see some substantial updates to the older campus residences. I know sports are a large part of getting students to campus, but they aren’t going to want to stick around if everything they own is covered in water or mold.
With the reputation that the music program holds, there is no shortage of work that could be done in Jensen-Noble. Let’s get a committee together to figure out what goes wrong with that locker hallway every time rehearsals switch over. Luther would also do well to invest in its writing-focused departments (as per my desire to see Main renovated). Perhaps I’m a bit biased as an employed journalist and former CHIPS employee, but recent administrative actions involving CHIPS remain concerning to me. If Luther wants students to hone the investigative and intellectual skills learned in Paideia, CHIPS is the place for it. A few bucks their way would do the community good, and Luther would sorely miss a student paper if it ever came to doing away with the work study position entirely.
I’m excited to watch Luther grow, and very much hope that Legends becomes a more accessible, attractive building to use for students, whether they’re on a team or not. But I also hope that those who choose to open their pocketbooks to Luther in the future recognize that sports are not the only thing that happens on campus.
Ian Wreisner (‘22)
Editor’s Note: Opinions expressed in Letters to the Editor do not represent the views of the CHIPS organization and do not necessarily represent the views of individual CHIPS staff members. The author of the letter is solely responsible for opinions expressed in their writing.
