AASU builds in right direction

AASU is starting to look like a traditional university, and it only took the most upside-down, inside-out, bass-ackwards route to traditionalism over the past 75 years.

It's glorious and invigorating. Who would ever think those words describe a new freshman dormitory hall, student center, a giant convention center and newly face-lifted intramural field? Well, those very words describe the general emotions of the Pirate community entering the 2010-11 school year, when just six months ago words like dejected, broken and victimized appropriately fitted any member of the University System of Georgia, thanks to their price hikes. At least we can visualize where some of those hard earned dollars are going.

The AASU powers that be finally got it right by following conventional wisdom. For the first 74 years, the Pirates were stumbling through life like an out-of-towner stumbles through River Street on St. Patties Day. As a college, and then as an university, AASU catered to its commuter students and not the traditional 18-22 year-olds that somehow survive on a strict diet of Ramen Noodles and Orange Gatorade.

Then, after AASU became a real-deal four-year university, came the dorm apartments – a.k.a. the next generation dorm. The only problem with those on-campus beasties was that other off-campus options offered lower prices, weren't located on a dry campus and allowed pets, all the while AASU housing did – and still does forbid libations and man's furry best buds. At least those are the most prevalent excuses for not living on-campus for Pirates.

Then other short-coming was that an incoming freshman could choose to explore their off-campus housing options, thus missing out on an intricate, intoxicatingly fun – not that kind of intoxicating, keep your pants on Campus Police – and socially vital college experience.

What kind of college craziness do people miss if they just come to class and leave for their off-campus housing right away? They may never go to the relatively brand-new Student Recreation Center where they can make new life-friends in a pick-up basketball game, avoid the freshman 15 by figuring out how to consistently exploit the advantages of a Stairmaster or meet their soulmate – who also is their personal trainer. They may never keep their parents happy by maintaining their Hope Scholarship if they never step foot in the eternally silent, but ecstatically friendly Lane Library. They may even require quadruple bypass heart surgery if they continue to binge eat at fast food restaurants instead of at the new Student Union. That place is so new and shiny that when the light reflects off of it, you actually hear "bling-bling."

It is amazing, and it's all AASU's. Everything from the coffee shop to the movie theater, the cafeteria to the outdoor fountains that splish-splash water all day long belong to each and every Pirate.

It is surreal to think all of these fresh-off-of-the-shelf changes have come into fruition in the past five years, for the most part at least. AASU has transformed from a local blessing for the more contemporary commuter student to an international university for all students, commuters and computer gamers, national championship athletes and even international math-letes.

Welcome to the AASU of 2010, the home of the Pirates and a haven for higher understanding.