Opinion

Students should stop whining about the fountain

Students' attention is drawn to the Cullen Family Plaza Fountain and Reflecting Pool as its fence is removed and its pool is refilled with water. | Photo by Justin Tijerina

The fountain will return with great impact on both the University’s community and water conservation. | Justin Tijerina/The Cougar

The fountain at the Cullen Family Plaza does not deserve the amount of complaining that it has gotten in these last few semesters.

You can talk about how it represents the University as a whole as much as you want but at the end of the day, it’s just a fountain.

And before the University drained it to be fixed, that fountain was leaking 21,000 gallons of water each day. But nobody wants to talk about that.

In the 1970s, the fountain was built with galvanized steel piping. More than 40 years later, those pipes need replacement with more robust PVC piping. Along with that, energy-friendly LED lights will replace the original light bulbs. After those repairs, the site will need maintenance less often than in the past — every 20 years as opposed to every three years.

If the University had not acted, word of the wastefulness would have made its way to news outlets, which would, in turn, use that information to lambaste the administration. Both decisions were equally unattractive, but they chose the best one.

They were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t.

The other complaint was that they filled the fountain for Donald Trump, which is quite an incomplete statement. They filled the fountain because the GOP debate was held on campus with CNN on site to showcase attractive parts of the campus to the rest of the world during commercial breaks. 

Above ground, the fountain looks to have made zero progress, but all of the work so far has taken place beneath the surface. Ground-penetrating radar tests had to be performed in order to assess whether erosion had occurred beneath the fountain, creating pockets of air in need of refilling.

More and more people these days show concern for the environment and the colossal amount of waste that humans are responsible for. Take a step back, and realize that the University is standing up for those concerns with what they will implement to the fountain.

Now take a big breath, and don’t let something as trivial as a fountain ruin your day.

Assistant opinion editor Thomas Dwyer is a broadcast journalism sophomore and may be reached at [email protected]

11 Comments

  • Why don’t we talk about the rec instead. It’s absurd that people who live on campus, but are not taking classes in the summer have to pay a “membership” to go to the rec during the summer. Especially, when the rec is under renovations. Is our tuition money that is allocated for the rec not good enough?

    • What about the folks paying for the Rec Center, but who never use it? Why are we being charged? Oh, that’s just part of the stunning privilege of a attending a “Tier One” university which, over a forty-year period let its iconic fountain pipes corrode (via lack of regular maintenance,) to the point where the entire thing has to be shut down so they can repair it, leaving it as an eyesore for several semesters running with no visible change. Oh, yes, the thrill of Tier One life.

      • Let me take a wild guess here James, you’re probably out of shape and likely fat and you probably should be using the Rec. That’s why you’re paying for it.

        • If that’s that’s best you’ve got, Pee Wee, you need to spend more time at the fabricated rock wall to help you understand about overcoming obstacles — especially rhetorical ones.

  • My guess is that people are not actually complaining about the repairs but about the time it has taken to fix it! The dates that were stipulated and that were printed in the sign they had in the fence they put around the fountain originally said it was going to be close only for a semester and that was in Spring 2014! So two classes have now already graduated and couldn’t enjoy the fountain during their time as students in UH.

  • I don’t think anyone is upset about the fountain being renovated, but the problem is that they’ve been greenlighting renovation efforts on the fountains as far back as 2012, and then when they finally decided to mobilize in late 2014 they stuck a “Fall 2015” due date on it. Meanwhile, here we are in mid 2016 and no ‘visual’ improvements have been made. I emphasize visual there because when a project is a year behind its supposed delivery date and it doesn’t even look like anything is happening (i.e. demolition, construction, fabrication, etc.) then it casts doubt on it even being done by the next date they’ve promised, Fall 2016.

    And, it’s not fair to trivialize something just because you don’t care about it. There’s a ton of history behind the fountains, and for some people chilling near (or in) there was a good way to wind down, relax, study, or socialize. People undervalue the feeling of stability that comes with treasured historic landmarks. In a period of life as ephemeral and unstable as college sometimes it’s nice to take in a brand of consistency, and the comfort that may come with that. Now, for whoever needed it/wanted it, that isn’t there for them, at least for the time being.

  • The problem is that we have yet to see any action. It shouldn’t take this long to replace galvanized piping and change some light bulbs. We have every right to complain by this point.

  • I feel like an additional piece should be written to explain the discrepancies in dates to help the student body and Houston community understand what’s the time line of this project. If there was a lack of funding (which there was) a piece should compliment this one to subside the angry criticism this article may have received on its content and/or lack of content. But that’s just me.

  • I feel like The Cougar should do an additional piece should be written to explain the discrepancies in dates to help the student body and Houston community understand what’s the time line of this project. If there was a lack of funding (which there was) a piece should compliment this one to subside the angry criticism this article may have received on its content and/or lack of content. But that’s just me.

  • One way to solve the situation … turn the fountain into one big urinal so that all students and trannies can use it without being afraid (like trannies they are now) of their presence on campus.

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