On Monday, the Kissam Experience Team hosted a ground breaking ceremony to kick off the new Kissam Experience. As part of the special event, the team released plans for the future of the Kissam Experience Living and Learning Initiative and Dean of The Commons Frank Wcislo and Mark Bandas delivered speeches. The theme of the day was impending construction, complete with a pile of dirt and a golden shovel, which Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos and several administrators used to physically carry out the metaphor.

In its second year of being upperclassman housing, the dorms are now home to the first class of Commons alumni. The newest Kissam residents have described their experience thus far as better than expected and the administration has made great progress in making the residence halls a better place to live. Regardless of the improvements to the Kissam Experience, this “ground breaking” metaphor begs the question: How long until the real construction gets underway?

The proposal for the residential college program at Vanderbilt has been in the works since a committee was assigned to investigate the prospects of such a system in 1999. Upon the creation of The Commons and the freshman experience, Vanderbilt touted the future of the upperclassmen experience and extending the Commons-style living and learning environment to main campus. There was a promise that the infamous Kissam Quadrangle would be demolished and two new college halls would stand in its place.
The current economy has, understandably, put these plans on hold. The Vanderbilt endowment investments fell 16 percent in the last fiscal year and the university has been dealing with budget cuts and hiring and salary freezes. It is definitely not the best time to begin a multi-million dollar demolition and construction effort, but the administrations complete lack of a timeline is frustrating.

Many Vanderbilt upperclassmen came to Vanderbilt and were told that Kissam would someday soon become a thing of the past. While the university has made the best of a bad situation, the student body deserves some semblance of a construction plan. The ground-breaking imagery used at Monday’s ceremony was strong and leaves us wondering when the real digging will begin.