The Carolina Coliseum has, for a long time, been the dead weight of this campus. Soon to be flanked by the Strom, the new business school, the new housing complex and even a renovated Marriott, things aren’t looking so good for this old and undesired edifice.
When we say undesired, we mean undesired. The Coliseum currently house the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management and the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, and after years of using a run-down building with no windows, both students and administrators have had enough. Even Dean Brian Mahalik of the College of HRSM said they were having trouble hiring professors due to the shoddy state of the faculty offices.
Clearly, something needs to be done about the Coliseum, and ideas are already being tossed around. There’s talk of turning the it into another student union, like Russell House, except bigger and better. But here’s the catch: The renovation would cost a whopping $100 million.
True, if this project actually happens, it will be way down the road. However, when put in perspective, the goal isn’t unrealistic. After all, USC spent $200 million on renovating athletics facilities in the past few years, and with Russell House too crowded as it is, the renovation of the Coliseum would be exactly what we need to accommodate a body of 30,000 students and growing. Not to mention it would make the campus look a lot better.
USC should seriously consider this path, and if not, then the Coliseum should just be destroyed. Or made into a parking lot. Anything would be better than what it is now.