The weather is getting nicer and students at Grambling State University are looking for a better place to hang out other than the Yard to have a good time, maybe even grill some steak or chicken. Most students do not know there is a Charles P. Adams Park in front of Richmond Hall.Jamila Hickman a sophomore from Lake Providence, said, “I don’t know anything about it.”
As a matter of fact, most administrators do not know that there is a park there. The park in front of Richmond Hall has a gazebo, fountain, picnic tables, grills, and plenty of trees for shade.
If the park is so beautiful then why aren’t the students using it? Some may say it is too far from their dorms. Before the new dorms went up and the old dorms came down the park was close enough for most of the students.
The main reason the park is not being used at all is because it is rundown. When Lovoyd Dudley, the director of Facilities, realized that it was actually a park, he began to “maintain the property by cutting the grass and trimming the bushes, but the park is in a flooded area.”
Dr. Stacey Duhon, vice president of Student Affairs, says she “didn’t know that it was in bad shape, but that does not mean that we can’t move it onto our list” (of priorities).
It is completely understandable that the park is hard to maintain when it floods, but Damondric Jackson, a senior from Alexandria, said, “The semester before I got here people used to use the park. I think they should clean it up. That’ll give us someplace to chill.”
Jackson was not the first person to suggest fixing the park. SGA President Chris Harmon from Monroe said, “We are proposing to our organizations that we host a cleanup then host barbecues or something so that the park will be used. We feel that if each organization participates in using the park then Facilities can help keep up with it more.”
President-elect Steven Jackson said, “Fixing the park is one of the first things we plan to do when we return from the summer, but we have to check about the flooding.”
“We also created committees called Keeping GSU Clean, Going Green, and already have a few people involved,” the president-elect said.