Every time I look at the new University Union, I cannot help but feel a small part of my TCU experience has been robbed from me. With a $49.3 million price tag, the Brown-Lupton University Union was finally finished Aug. 18, ushering in a new era of students paying an average of $8 for a meal and getting lost in the process. It has replaced the Brown-Lupton Student Center, a building most sophomores and above could appreciate.
It was in the Student Center that most of my final admissions application was processed and completed. I remember it being the first building I walked into on TCU’s campus several years ago. Not only did I receive my first ID card and finish enrolling for class in this building, but I could eat there too as long as I budgeted myself on $1,700. After several years of enjoying this building, it was brutally demolished without so much as a second thought, all in the name of progress. Well if progress costs an estimated $155 million this year alone, I’d like to have a building that doesn’t make people roll their eyes when they mention it.
The Brown-Lupton University Union has the unfortunate honor of being called the BLUU while trying not to make a mockery of decent building acronyms. As a TCU student, would it be unreasonable to ask the naming committee not to create silly acronyms for one of the most important buildings on campus? Would it be even more unreasonable for students to have a voice at all in this decision?
What was wrong with the name Brown-Lupton Student Center? Is BLUU easier to say than BLSC or simply Student Center? At least saying, “I’m headed to the Student Center,” gave clear indications of where one was going, as opposed to, “I’m going to the BLUU.” By that, for all I know you could be headed to the latest Good Charlotte concert to drown out your sorrows in bad music. The BLUU has yet to create a name for itself either. Everyone knew where the old Student Center was and what services it performed. No one is really quite sure yet as to what the BLUU has for services, hours or even food entrées. I discovered it does have three new retail stores and a conference center, but I also am aware TCU spent another $7.5 million on the TCU Barnes and Noble Bookstore and plenty of other buildings on campus also have conference rooms. The BLUU simply makes me wonder what its real purpose truly is.
I suppose my biggest complaint with this new building is its name: The BLUU. I am not a scientist or anything comparable to that, but upon careful examination of TCU, nothing here is blue. The acronym BLUU could be an attempt to cash in on the whole “misspelling/bad grammar” craze courtesy of text messaging.
It needs a name TCU students and faculty can appreciate.
Therefore, I humbly suggest renaming the BLUU to something more recognizable and pro-TCU -a name TCU students can identify with and be proud of. I suggest the PURPL or the People’s University Regional Pride and Love. Awesome acronym with a double dose of affection for students and faculty, all in one name. I believe the change is imminent.
Bruno Bruelhart is a junior writing and history major from Hobbs, N.M.
