Caution tape stretched across the entrance to the St. Charles Room is another reminder of Loyola’s constant state of disrepair.

Behind the glass doors one can see that modern designs replace the drab and outdated former carpet. But this is just a small cog in a machine of contemporary makeovers Loyola’s campus must tolerate throughout the coming months and years.

The approval of a “master plan” for Loyola’s campus will dramatically renovate its physical dimension, including necessary adjustments made to outdated architecture, and hip furniture and interior design replacements for much of the Danna Center.

But these are long-term projects with completion in an unforeseeable future for most Loyolans.

For instance, the soon-to-be graduates of the class of 2008 have never seen a Loyola campus free of construction. From Carrollton Hall’s immense overhaul, post-Katrina restoration and the “deferred maintenance” war zone that barricaded the entrance to Bobet Hall, these students are left without a lasting image of Loyola’s aesthetic pride, other than the ubiquitous postcard image of Marquette Hall.

Instead they will be left with the impression of a Loyola without an identity in a post-Katrina New Orleans – one unable to maintain a coherent visual presence in this constantly evolving landscape. But that impression brings with it the reminder of Loyola’s survival not only from hurricanes but also from controversial administrative decisions, security issues and other problems Loyola – and New Orleans – have endured.

This graduating class, and possibly others, will be a part of Loyola’s experiment with a national disaster – one that inspired dramatic physical change not only in personnel but also in the look of Loyola.

We the students should not feel naively content with the look of its campus, especially considering rising tuition costs and the college economy. Loyola students have had to shrug their shoulders as endless construction and maintenance have tarnished the image so many call home, an image often taken for granted as they submit themselves to a building’s inside rather than its outside for classes.

Perhaps the only remedy is the impossible – evacuate campus for a year or two and proceed with an expedited makeover process.

But even significant changes, including the addition of a common area in the Monroe Library and the removal of the grates outside the Danna Center, are largely unnoticed. Library patrons resumed their make-yourself-at-home attitude to the new floor plan, and most passers-by outside the Danna Center wouldn’t be able to tell the difference if Physical Plant were to replace it overnight.

Maybe Loyola students aren’t ready for an expedited makeover. Maybe they are as subdued by Loyola’s problems as its administration. But for a campus resigned to what may be a lifetime of renovation, these students will continue their ambivalence towards Loyola’s endless construction unless the administration motivates a faster visual recovery of Loyola’s timeless image.