Tuesday, July 8, 2008

The Orwellian "double speak" of F & M

In response to an inquiry of Franklin & Marshall if there were plans to tear down the Harrisburg Pike pedestrian overpass, NewsLanc received the following response from Dulcey Antonucci, Director of Media Relations:

"To answer your question, our long term master plan that was approved in February of this year does include removal of the bridge. However, there is no timetable or active discussions about the removal. Since the bookstore moved to the center of campus, the bridge is used by very few people. We want to keep pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk to calm and tame traffic and make the road safer: there is the perception by drivers that if pedestrians are around, they slow down."

First, F & M insisted on replacing the middle lane of Harrisburg Pike with a grass island because somehow this was to deter students from crossing in the middle of the block (which makes no sense to us). Now we are told that students are to be put at risk in order to encourage drivers to slow down!

Does anything that happens or comes from F & M make any sense any more?

The imprimatur on all of these series of incredible happenings seems to be that of one John Fry.