Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the IU Maurer School of Law would be expanding. The IDS regrets this error.
The fraternity Phi Gamma Delta, better known as Fiji, will have its house torn down and relocated.
The new Fiji house will be built upon a plot of land located along Eighth Street.
This plot of land is occupied by six houses that are currently home to various university organizations.
Two of the six house are to be completely demolished, while the remaining four are to be moved onto a plot of land that is the current home of the Sprouts Garden, an IU student-run community garden.
It’s all one big, messy game of plots.
With all of the expansions and relocations, there has been a small discussion with regard to relocating the garden but nothing definitive or substantial has surfaced, leaving Sprouts Garden homeless.
The Indiana Daily Student Editorial Board talked with the Sprouts Garden co-founder Daniel Atlas and Vice President Lauren Martin.
Sprouts Garden has been on campus since 2005 and, with the help of student volunteers and the Bloomington community, has produced thousands of pounds of organic produce for garden volunteers and many local food agencies, they said.
This garden has been a wonderful resource for IU students and the Bloomington community, not only because of its productivity, but also because it’s an educational ?experience.
Sprouts has taught countless individuals in and around the Bloomington community the values of living a sustainable lifestyle.
It is truly unfortunate that more has not been done in order to allow Sprouts to continue to be an active part of the IU community, especially since IU advocates so strongly for sustainability.
With these recent happenings, it would seem IU’s dedication to sustainability is merely an afterthought.
IU will dedicate large amounts of resources and money to shuffling around all of these houses and organizations to accommodate the construction of a bright and shiny fraternity mansion.
The University will invest money and energy into a project that will not only produce large quantities of waste, but will also be eliminating a valuable and sustainable community resource.
It is clear IU has granted favor to one student organization over another for a reason, and as a community, we must ask ourselves what the reasoning is behind these actions.
We need to be backing projects that help us, not just help us ?socialize.
We must ask why IU is investing so much money and resources into this project and leaving other organizations in limbo when there are much better alternatives, such as building the new fraternity house on an already vacant plot of land.
