By: Mira Costello and Jordan Sarver-Bontrager

Editor-in-Chief, Media Writer

If you’ve attended in-person classes at IU South Bend for a semester or two, you’ve likely noticed inefficient uses of space, outdated buildings and even areas that have fallen into disrepair. 

Some of these instances are milder; the former Starbucks kiosk location in the Education and Arts building, for example, has been unused for multiple semesters, raising questions about when and how it will be repurposed. The old Gateway, near the Mishawaka avenue entrance in the Administration building, has sparked similar conversations after sitting abandoned for years, save for occasional drop-in events, during which it is used primarily for its counter space. 

Other offenses, though, range from unsightly to downright hazardous, leading us to ask: have parts of IU South Bend been forgotten?

Northside is perhaps most complained about among students, featuring poor heating and cooling in its classrooms, desks sometimes too small to fit a laptop computer, program offices relegated to eerie basement corridors and even science labs with partially broken ventilation systems. A bulletin board on the ground floor contains decades-old posters. Its neglected courtyard and out-of-order fountain are also reminders that little attention has been paid to some campus spaces in recent years.

Tucked behind the Grill, the Fine Arts building – in which many students may never have a class – might present the most egregious examples of lack of maintenance. Its men’s bathroom is missing two sinks (where did they go?), and recently had a stall removed to make the bathroom wheelchair accessible – perhaps the cheapest, but not the most dignified, way to ensure accessibility. 

The women’s bathroom is also home to a host of problems. For example, a tube funnels from the ceiling into a bucket in order to prevent water from the leaky roof from flooding the restroom, which already has significant water damage. 

Other buildings, though, aren’t exempt from these problems. The elevator in the Student Activities Center, for instance, has a certificate of inspection that expired in August 2023.

And, while the library’s decor may sometimes be outdated, it is still functional and often comfortable; the library bathrooms, on the other hand, can leave much to be desired. The fifth floor women’s restroom tile is often covered in pools of water due to a leaking toilet, and we found a toilet that had been detached from its plumbing in the basement men’s bathroom (pictured).

While initiatives like the Student Government Association’s Future Titan Ingenuity Fund may supplement the renovation of some of these spaces next year and beyond, the widespread issues beg questions about why, despite other new projects (such as the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship) going ahead, existing campus spaces fall by the wayside. More importantly, what will happen when spaces on an already small campus, especially those that specifically cater to certain programs, become unusable?