Over the last number
of years, the building has shown some of its age, and it could use significant
repairs. As a university spokesperson
stated in a
recent article about the plans that appeared in the Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune, “It is in poor condition and
would require a substantial investment to bring it up to being minimally
acceptable." However,
administrators at Bowling Green State University have determined that, rather
than make those substantial investments to repair the building, the university
would be better served by demolishing the building and using that space for
other options, such as a parking lot or as part of a site for a new student
health center. That decision appears to
be driven by the view of administrators who, as characterized by the university
spokesperson, “do not feel the house is particularly significant.”
Unfortunately, that
sentiment appears to be one that university administrators gained without surveying
members of the community who might feel very differently about the significance
of the Popular Culture Building. Indeed,
many of us who are alumni, students, staff, and faculty feel quite strongly
about the building, given that it has served as the home of the Popular Culture
Department for decades, that it served as a home for a number of past
university presidents, that it has unique charm that adds to the character of
Bowling Green State University, and that it
is a piece of popular culture itself!
It was a catalog home ordered from Montgomery Ward & Company and
erected in 1932, then purchased by the university in 1937. For a little more on the house and its
history, see this
brief account.
Plans are developing
in an attempt to save the Popular Culture house, though work must be done fast,
as university administrators – again, apparently without consultation with constituencies
who might have a stake in this discussion – have made plans to have the
building demolished by the beginning of the Fall 2012 semester, which starts in
less than a month on August 20.
If you’d like to be
involved in the effort to save the building, here are some things you can do:
Write to BGSU President
Mary Ellen Mazey at mmazey@bgsu.edu to
indicate your opposition to this decision.
Call the Office of
the BGSU President at 419-372-2211 to voice your opposition to this decision.
This blog is devoted
to “piecing together personal experience, popular culture, and politics.” My involvement in efforts to save the Popular
Culture Building reflects exactly that confluence. If not for my interests in the study of
popular culture, this blog would not be the kind of avenue of expression that
it is today. Those interests were
shaped, in significant part, by my experiences in the Popular Culture Building,
and as I have noted, the building’s status as a piece of popular culture has
played a significant role in that shaping process. The politics of BGSU, as they currently work,
left me and many other interested folks out of discussions about the future of
this building until we noticed third-party reporting about plans that came out
of those discussions and that had already been finalized. Maybe in the end there are really, really good
reasons for this decision. I’d like to
think that me and others like me who are attempting to save the building would
be willing to accept those reasons had we, or at least folks to represent us,
been involved in those decisions. We
weren’t, and that’s why it’s so crucial that we express ourselves now.
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