Summer is only a few weeks away and with that many of us will go home or travel off for our internships, but while we are all out enjoying the beautiful weather, things are still happening at Iowa State and in Ames. Campus, and the area around it, is changing and will continue to change over the summer. If we don’t keep up with the events and happenings going on in the local area, we will be in for a big surprise when we return in the fall.

In past summers, Iowa State has continued to make decisions on construction and other changes on campus. During the summer, when the students are mostly gone, it is the one of best time to do construction. On campus alone there will be construction happening in the residence halls, including getting a new dining center up and running, before the flood of students that will return in the fall.

The only way to know for sure what changes are going to be made over the summer is to stay connected with the university. Staying connected is easy and there are many ways to do so. Checking the Iowa State website, reading the newspaper and continually checking your email over the summer will more than likely keep you up to date on the changes around you.

It is equally our responsibility as students to keep in touch with the Ames community. We live in Ames for nine months of the year, it is our home, we should want to have a say, or at least know about, what kinds of changes are going to be made in the community we live in.

Although most students have left and campus has quieted down, Ames is still a community outside of the university and will still be functioning on its own. An example of this would be last summer when the community made the decision for Kingland Systems to expand and make changes in campus town. Many students were upset about this decision when they came back in the fall, but had students continued to pay attention throughout the summer months, they would have had better knowledge of what changes were being made.

There is going to be expansion in the residence halls over the summer because of the increase in the incoming number of students. More residence halls are, at some point, going to have to be built and more apartments will need to be purchased by the university in order to house all of these students. Many of these final decisions will be made in the summer before we return to school and if we aren’t keeping up with Iowa State we will be unaware of the changes that are being made.

The impact that students have on Ames is more than just on the campus. Any off-campus business openings or closings will affect students as well. Ames City Council meetings are open to the public and the agendas are posted online. If students feel strongly about something, there is always the option to go to them and speak out about how you feel.

We live in Ames for a majority of the year. Our opinion of what goes on in the community is just as important as anyone else’s, but if we shut ourselves off from Ames and from the school when we leave in the summer we are silencing our voices from making a difference in the community.