Simple Logic destruction long overdue

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Sitting as a decrepit disasterpiece on East College Lawn, Simple Logic will be put to rest this week.

When I first heard the news, a choir of angels started singing "Hallelujah" in my head until they were promptly interrupted by The Chamber Brothers "Time Has Come Today." Let's get that East College fire pit started!

Thanks to good fortune and a convenient housing location I have the pleasure of walking past East College every day I have class in my final semester at DePauw. Each and every time I walk past East College, I gain a greater appreciation for its aged beauty on a campus striving for new vanities.

Then of course I walk by Simple Logic, and the twisted structures of branches remind me how age destroys a structure.

The stick structure had its golden years. Its quirky design and natural resourcefulness deserved centerfold recognition following its construction in the fall of 2007. But by 2011, it had reached the Goldie Hawn category – well past its attractive prime.

I can only imagine Simple Logic's current role on campus. Need a bathroom when making a late-night campus stroll? Use Simple Logic. The bedroom just isn't cutting it for you and your loved one? Use Simple Logic.

I'm not a fan of vandalism. Despite all the markings you will see on the desktops in Asbury Hall, you will not find any of mine. The same goes for the bathroom-stalls-turned-canvases in Roy O. West Library. However, a part of me has long wanted to flatten Simple Logic.

I kept resisting, hoping Mother Nature or Father Casey would find its removal in their master plan. I never did find it in the DePauw 2020 plan. And then came the DePauwcalypse.

After a thick coat of ice trees, bushes, and power lines were claimed as victims. Sitting in my Rector Village home, I hoped that Simple Logic would become part of the wreckage. But to my dismay, it still sat there in front of East College, slouching towards the ground as dilapidated as ever.

The structure became even worse of an eyesore and I wondered if it might be a safety concern too. I imagined some sticks coming loose and whacking a passerby square in the face. Spending more than three years bound tightly together might pack a powerful punch.

Come Thursday all my concerns will be alleviated. Simple Logic was a temporary installation, but three and a half years later Patrick Dougherty's second oldest installation has run its course at DePauw. Dougherty's work deserves to be commended, but it's time to move on — the pieces will be ground to mulch.

I hope the campus can continue to bring creative minds to campus to create art like Simple Logic. Even if the structure stood one year too long, the unique artistic expression helps separate DePauw from other ho-hum college campuses. As the university moves towards the 2020 master plan, let's keep such creativity in mind.

While we're at it, let's bring Dougherty back for a larger project. I hear we need a new dining hall.

— James is a senior from LaPorte, Ind., majoring in English writing. He is the co-investigative news editor for The DePauw.

opinion@thedepauw.com