The Tunnels

You’re about to finish high school and you’re considering going to Avila University, so you arrange a tour. The campus is nice, a bit smaller than you were expecting, but it’s refreshing. Then your guide turns to you and says, “have you seen our tunnels?” You get confused and think to yourself, “your what!?” Next thing you know you’re walking around under the school in the somewhat intimidating, yet eerily enchanting tunnels.

They may seem confusing at first, but navigating through them is fairly simple. The West Tunnel connects Blasco Hall, O’rielly Hall, and the Whitfield Center. The East Tunnel connects the Marian Center, Hodes Hall, and Dallas Center. However, while the tunnels are extremely useful, many students agree that it would be better if the two tunnels eventually connected.

“The two tunnels don’t connect to each other, “ Gracyn Reed, freshman, said, “you can’t go from one tunnel to the other tunnel.”

However, there’s not much to complain about. Avila University’s campus is 50 acres. That’s less than a square mile. To put that into perspective, the University of Kansas is over 1,000 acres. So, while we all complain about walking across campus when it’s cold, it’s nothing compared to other universities. However, the tunnels come in handy when the weather is bad. Especially when Missouri decides to have brutal winters with low windchill’s. 

“I use them quite frequently,” sophomore Joy Branch said, “when it’s cold, or raining!”

If you don’t know much about the tunnels, they can be confusing and after taking them, you may think you’re headed towards one building, and end up on the other side of campus. Don’t worry, the tunnels have arrows. And as a last resort you could always just turn around. Whatever the case may be, I’m sure many students can recall the first time they stumbled upon them.

“The first time was by accident,” Branch said, “I hit the ground floor on the elevators in the dorms and I thought they went to the first floor but they actually went underground. I had no idea where I was and then I figured out they were tunnels.”