The issue of having an adequate amount of campus space has been a seemingly never-ending struggle at Columbia. With various campus buildings spread throughout the city’s South Loop, it seems as though when we’re not complaining about the lack of space, we’re spending money to build more.

As one of the largest landowners in the South Loop, it’s astounding that Columbia is still packed in so tightly. True, we are an urban campus, where things like rolling meadows and grassy quads are far out of sight, but if we’ve invested enough money in buying this space, we should, at the very least, be utilizing it better.

Take, for instance, the 33 E. Congress Parkway Building. Just four years ago, the Journalism Department moved to the second floor. Now it feels like we are over capacity. This is occurring in several buildings throughout campus, and it seems to highlight one thing: Columbia has done little to forecast the space needs of its student body years in advance.

Another thing that is evident in Columbia’s poor planning of buildings is the placement of different departments. Various departments that interact on a regular basis are often far away from one another, which is a confusing hassle. Instead of using a ton of money (money that we don’t really have) to build an entirely new facility, perhaps it would be beneficial for us to think about what to do with the current space we own. Then, we can make a more informed decision on whether or not we need something new.

The Media Production Center, being built on State and 16th streets, is set to mainly provide more space for the Film and Video Department. Though this is a great step for Columbia and film students, there are other departments on campus that need just as much attention.

While the issue of space and building is complex and has no way of being solved immediately, it’s an incredibly important topic that the college should be on top of. After all, it would be nice to know that 10 years from now we won’t still be short of desks in our general education classes.