"Is that it?"
That seemed to be the most prevalent attitude toward our new fountain on Reunion Plaza. The spout of water emanating from a pipe in the ground is not what most people thought when they heard that a fountain would be included in the new West Street. To my knowledge, no one so far has heard anything that says that this is not the permanent fountain, so I suppose we are to assume that this it is. It almost looks like an accident: "Woops, there's a broken pipe under the plaza and it's shooting out water!" There's a subtle difference between a fountain and a pipe sticking out of the ground. One of them is somewhat attractive; I'll leave it up to you to figure out which. Personally, I think a statue of John Boynton would be tres chic. But since emergency vehicles must be able to drive through the plaza - an agreement reached between the city and WPI - large structures seem to be out of the question.
So who is going to have the honor of being the first one to be pushed into the fountain on his or her way to class? What happens in the winter - will the fountain run (or spout, as the case might be), and if so, what precautions would be made with the area around the fountain that would become icy?
These speculations aside, I think it is horrible that WPI can't bring something new to the campus without some deviant students doing something negative to it. Last year, the school was gracious enough to put new furniture in the Wedge; soon afterward, people began stealing it. Now, we have something which has the potential to be a classy fountain (note the word potential), and people are putting soap in it, with others speculating about mixing concrete in with the water. Can't we have something nice on campus and not have it ruined within the first week? This is really pitiful. As a whole, the students here are very intelligent, but unfortunately this does not always imply maturity.
I think, as an innovative and intelligent school, we should do something besides the basic fountain idea, especially since we can't have an actual fountain because vehicles have to get by. Have you ever been to Epcot Center and seen the jumping water? I could imagine water jumping from the sides of the center part of the plaza. It would be fun, attractive, interesting, and somewhat original (despite stealing the idea from Epcot). It could even be lit different colors at night. Maybe crimson and gray, or maybe random yellows and greens. It would not be "just another fountain", and it certainly won't be a pipe sticking out of the ground, spurting out water like a broken pipe.