Hopefully, by the time this newspaper prints, the gates in front of the library exit will be gone. We won’t have to trek through the catwalk and the science building in order to get onto the plaza anymore. If that hap- pens, construction on the entrance to the library will be done nearly two months later than anticipated. And we’ll be back to semi-normal just before the first frost. The stairs look complete from the catwalk. There’s nothing different about them except for the new cement. They have the exact same fire exit style as they did when they were built in the 70s: Steel rebar and ce- ment. Which leaves us wondering, if it takes this much time to maintain our buildings, will we ever see the new buildings we’re being promised in the so-called Master Plan? The current 25 year campus remodeling plan -the Master Plan- which promises to replace most of the dreary concrete buildings on campus, give us dorms, two parking garages, a state of the art science building, and a few actual trees on campus, will come to fruition about 15 years after most of the students of this generation are dead. You’ll notice the new sign at the entrance of the campus right after the first rotary for the new science building. Construction was supposed to begin in March. But it looks like a new project to reinforce the parking garage so that our buildings don’t collapse into the bay has put that proj- ect on hold. It took less then 40 years for the buildings on this campus to begin to crumble from their foundations. Hopefully these new campus projects will be better planned and constructed. The $500 million Phase One of the Master Plan should be done in less than seven years, according to umb.edu. It promises new facilities in- cluding the Integrated Science Center, a new academic building and in- frastructure construction including road and utility improvements. We’re caught in an endless barrage of construction. These little projects that extend far beyond deadline and cause us hassles in our day-to-day lives as students are our only gauge for the progress of the construction on campus. If these little projects can’t be done on time, what can we expect from the big projects? There’s no end in sight to the construction for this class year, or the next one or the next for years to come. We’re excited to see what comes out of all the activity surrounding this campus, even if it means wait- ing until we’re 80. Expanding a public university when state funds are constantly dwindling is no small task. That’s probably why the university chose to put the following slogan on its Master Plan website: “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir the blood and prob- ably will not be realized. Make big plans. Aim high in hope and work.” – Daniel Burnham, architect and urban planner All we’re asking for are realistic deadlines. High hopes only last as long as the promises on which they’re built.