To the Editor: Building's historical value ignored
Written by Wallace L. Pretzer   
Wednesday, 15 August 2012 08:37
To the Editor:
Regarding demolition of a historic house, Dave Kielmeyer sounded so proud when he was quoted as saying that the University was "ahead of schedule with the preparations and got the permits late Thursday from the city."  
Apparently there was no acknowledgment on the part of key university officials and the city's mayor of the historical value of a structure built as a Montgomery Ward Kit house in 1932.  It became a home for four BGSU presidents and housed the nation's first Department of Popular Culture; department professors made solid remarks about taking some time for analysis.  University officials, however, were so "antsy" in moving to demolish the building in order to further, ironically speaking, "the health" of BGSU!  Shame on all who handled this matter so very badly.

Wallace L. Pretzer
Bowling Green
 

Comments  

 
# 2012-08-15 10:35
I thought the matter was handled very well. The owner of the home applied for the appropriate permits and followed the appropriate laws pertaining to their property.
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# 2012-08-15 15:06
very snide, Randian, and inhumane of you.
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# 2012-08-15 15:49
Why, it's the truth?
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# 2012-08-15 18:14
Oh my God. Really? We're concerned about the "inhumane" treatment of an inanimate object? If we kept everything that had remote value, we'd all be hoarders. Change is good. Embrace the change. And if you suspect there are other historical homes in BG, I'd advise that you'd best get on top of those preservation efforts now.
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# 2012-08-16 07:57
I am talking about the inhumane reaction to the concern of the faculty and students. Read their comments, JB. All this chest thumping triumph over the destruction of the building is an expression of contempt for the Pop Culture department itself.
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# 2012-08-16 17:12
Hmm. I think that's reading into it a bit. Demolishing a building has little to do with contempt for a department.

Why would BGSU have contempt for a department that basically put BGSU on the map, and makes it, according to the website, "the only university in the United States to implement a graduate department devoted to the scholarly study of popular culture"?

Considering the hold that pop culture has over our population (Real Housewives, reality TV, graphic novels, etc.), it would seem this is a beneficial department, not a detriment, and certainly not one to be disdained.

I'm sorry, Christopher Williams, I maintain that you're reaching. (BTW, I'm the offspring of professors and I'm a BGSU alumni, so I do have a stake here; I'm not an "outsider" by any means.)
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# 2012-08-17 09:48
JB, you have my reference points jumbled. I am referring to posters to the blog such as "John" and "BGSU72" who have been carping for months about Popular Culture Studies (and American Culture Studies) being a blight on BGSU and among the first programs that should be eliminated as "waste, fraud, and abuse" of the taxpayers, because they "don't create jobs." The "self-disrespect" by BGSU is that they basically rolled over the faculty and students of the department in their handling of the building issue. Thank you for bluntly stating the value of the department (in which I worked for two years as a Visiting Fellow), with which I agree 100%.
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# 2012-08-15 21:33
Well said.
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# 2012-08-15 13:52
Don't you know by now BGSU talks. I can't for the life of me, know why they have to tear down many memories and then put up a new building because it's practical. Hasn't BGSU realized it takes money to run a new buidling? Oh I know raise the tuition for the students so one can't afford to go to college anymore. Better yet put the burden on the tax payers. Theee are better areas to spend money. A new medical building, really? What about Wd Cty Hos? I think there should be a chnage of the BGSU officials, get ones that are practical not spend thrifts and see how fast we can spend money.
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# 2012-08-15 18:18
Suzzie...First, you know that I was against this action by BGSU, so I am not defending it. However, you are a bit wrong about the funding. Most of the big building projects of BGSU rely on money raised outside, by alumni, the trustees. That was certainly true of the Wolfe Center and especially the new sports arena. The costs of running the buildings are budgeted for, but, you are right, often maintenance is put off and off until drastic action needs to be taken. Tuition costs are really complex, but the main thing taxpayer money accomplishes is it provides the cost difference between public colleges and more expensive private ones. The state contribution used to be over 60%, just 15 years ago; now it is down to about 25%. Some of the tuition hike is right there.
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# 2012-08-15 21:32
Students need a Campus Health Center, they had on, and it was not near enough room there. So, the Student body has had to resort to using the W/C E.R. for health matters that the E.R. is not for. Over crowding it at times with cases of Flu, Colds, more minor problems than what an E.R. Dept. is there for,instead of more emergency cases,chest pain, heart attach,etc. A new building built to standards of today, actually IS cheaper to maintain & run daily. You simply can not keep living in the past, it is what it is, 2012, not 1950 anymore.
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# 2012-08-19 12:02
So the solution to a health center that doesn't have enough room is to tear down buildings and build a new health center on a smaller plot of land that is less conviently located for students? If that's the administration's reasoning they clearly aren't the right people to be running a university.
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# 2012-08-20 07:09
But but...they are AUTHORITY figures. They are always right. And the pop culture department DESERVED this! Oh, wait, what are you saying? It still exists? Let's get our pitchforks; there is another building to tear down!
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# 2012-08-20 10:23
The old location is located on a dead end street at one of the most inconvenient places from most dorms. The new location would be centrally located to both the dorms and access for the 50% of students who live off campus.
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# 2012-08-20 17:53
That's an inaccurate statement. It is located next to a large and small parking lot, is centrally located between the library, musical arts center, Olscamp, and the Wolfe Center, and is no less accessible than the library.
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# 2012-08-24 12:46
There are a lot of "Newer" dorms quite a ways away from the new structure, I don't think that will cut it.
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# 2012-08-24 12:43
Well said.
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# 2012-08-24 12:42
Technology is great, I will be the first to say that. But the problem is our country has gotten to bi to fast over the last 60 years and that has cost as dearly. Now in today's economy our over all living conditions are exhasted. The U.S. infrastructure is shot a lot waterways, sewers need redone as well as the U.S. roadways. Then we will have to hav taxes raised to fix all that stuff while technology moves on. I might be living in the past as you put it but we all have to stay in our means and not over spend and that's why we are falling apart in the wallet area. You probably have money, I don't and don't want all my money spent in taxes.
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# 2012-08-15 16:04
The whole thing is absolutely silly. I agree with previous comments made that if this home was such a masterpiece and historic icon then previous staff could have and should have taken the steps to preserve, promote and register it.

Another question of the 10,000+ homes that have recently been bulldozed in Detroit this year alone, many of which were craftsman and kit homes, how many of historians successfully moved? How about the 20,000+ homes marked for bulldozing Cleveland and an additional 70K in other parts of Ohio.
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# 2012-08-16 08:09
They only care about the thing of the moment and turn a blind eye to everything else.
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# 2012-08-16 14:43
Please spell out your contempt for the professors and students more plainly.
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# 2012-08-16 16:13
Contempt is for the masses, or in this case the couple dozen people, who put down their lattes for an afternoon to bud into someone else's business because they know better and happy to tell everyone how much smarter the are.
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# 2012-08-17 09:51
I don't think it was "butting into someone else's business" for professors and students involved with a particular department to protest the razing of the building in which that same department was housed. Unless you basically view the BGSU campus as a physical entity owned by people other than the faculty and students, where the students and faculty are just underlings and drones who are entitled to no say in anything that happens to the campus and office spaces on/in which they work.
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# 2012-08-16 20:25
I'm glad to see the building come down amidst protests. Now I hope all these people move on to their next movement or cause.
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# 2012-08-17 09:52
Why?
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# 2012-08-17 10:33
It was just and old run down house. End of story....
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# 2012-08-17 14:17
Yep, for those of us who had actually been in it at some point it was a useless dump.
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# 2012-08-17 14:27
Why is it the same people who want most to have all of society organized around their view of the Bible, complain that there is no separation of church and state, get really angry at civil rights for LGBT, cry out against K-12 teachers, and against unions are also the exact same people who are most caustic in responding to the buildings and the Pop Culture department? Coincidence? I think not.
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# 2012-08-18 13:49
It is from fear and ignorance, pure and simple. This factor is rampant in the backwoods of BG and Wood County.
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# 2012-08-20 21:28
It was a stupid old mail order building for a silly department that exists for no other reason then to annoy students as a prereq.
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# 2012-08-21 11:31
Hateful agenda, Suzy? Your ignorance of the educational process is showing!

You have obviously never completed college.

There are many reasons for this important area of study. One of which is to examine the ignorant hate-rhetoric of folks like you posting on internet sites.

I KNOW it makes you uncomfortable.

How do you feel knowing that the department is still around?
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# 2012-08-21 14:47
It's one of many silly prereqs that serve little purpose other then to keep the academia machine flowing. Given the choice almost every student would jump at the chance to take more classes pertaining to their major or minor, or potentially try so more broad applicable courses in their field.
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# 2012-08-21 16:55
So much for producing well-rounded individuals with a wide background. You have NO idea what you are talking about and no experience whatsoever with REAL education as it stands.

Your hatred for academia is telling and you should be embarrassed.

The purposes are MULTIPLE, but you miss them with your ignorance, 'BGSU72'.

Some people just don't get it. They are the ones who often fail prereqs and gen-ed classes.
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# 2012-08-21 16:55
Apparently, you are unimpressed by the department's national standing or by the prestige that its faculty bring to the institution by landing competitive grants and research funds, or the profile raised by faculty members achieving national and international standing through publication. The Popular Culture Department is historic, as the first in the nation, and still offers the only Masters degree in that field nationwide; it is something that makes BGSU unique. BGSU72, the only thing you understand is the trade-school model. College is not that and should not be that, and just because you did not benefit from a broad education does not give you the right to deny it to others. Besides, never judge a whole department on the basis of 100-level courses.
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# 2012-08-24 12:58
I agree but taking those dumb classes makes you a more rounded person and more set to understand how everything fits together in the world. Yes I have 2.5 degrees so knock it off. I may not be the most smartest person in the world but I know when things should be challenged and broken apart so we don't go down that road of distrction and then have to go to the tax payers for more money. I think that naybe that's why our economy is shot.
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# 2012-08-21 17:04
It's probably redundant to note this at this time, but it seems that the glee with which Suzy, John, and BGSU72 greeted the destruction of the Pop Culture Building is second only to the utter contempt and resentment with which they hold the department. This contempt, though, is rooted in ignorance--a dangerous ignorance that basically holds everything that makes a college department worthwhile, including quality of instruction, research, and prestige outside the walls of the institution to be meaningless and offer nothing of value. For them, a college--especially a public college--should only or ever be a trade school, Brown Mackie with an annoying hippie factor. Nothing more. Which is really just a reflection of themselves.
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# 2012-08-23 12:42
How long are you people from the past going to continue beating a dead horse! The Pop Culture Dept. is NOT gone, just the old, unsafe, and out lived use of the the old building is gone. Not the Pop Culture Dept. and the contents, they are being housed in a safer place and I bet will find a new place to relocate to at some time in the future. Beware, though, there are more buildings to come down and be replaced !
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