Awareness.

I read in The Panther recently (CU’s Student Run Paper) that President Jim Doti and his wife made a generous donation that was placed in Hashinger Hall. It was a new statue. And of course, like all of our other statues, it is definitely gorgeous. However, with the money that was used to buy this sculpture, I truly believed it could’ve been used to change Chapman’s campus.

In the article (found here) it says that the average price of this piece is about $30,000. President Doti got it for a price that is reduced from that, although the actual price was not told. As I was doing research online, the price to install an elevator is about $10,000- $30,000. Heck, I might be wrong but it’s what various sites have told me. Think about it folks. That money could have been spent on something useful. Again, don’t get me wrong. The sculpture is a pleasure to look at and I’m sure it has great meaning behind it but what can it provide for the students? Some have even complained that because of the awkward positioning of this statue, it interferes to accessing their classrooms.

President Doti, please do not think I am disrespecting you or anyone else here at Chapman. I highly respect you and your wife and everything that you have done for the Chapman community. I just hope that you can realize that the 4% of students are still part of our family. I would like to ask you to use a wheelchair for a few hours and try to enter the higher levels of our historical buildings. We need to create awareness. We need to start a movement.

Picture by Sabrina Valdez