In the harsh cold of the middle of the academic year, students could stay warm between classes by traveling across campus underground instead of in the snow.
By: JDOT Trachuk
The shadow cast over the CSI community by its campus’s more sinister predecessor, the Willowbrook State School, is no secret. Though a student can graduate without ever learning about their classroom’s chilling history, reminders of the atrocities committed exist in the form of library archives and various informative online media. Unfortunately, the institution ran unchecked for decades and nothing can be done now for the victims abused in its run from 1948 to 1987.
Something can be done, though, for modern students who face hardship on the same grounds as the victims of Willowbrook.
With a campus size of 204-acres, any student enrolling in CSI should expect a lot of walking. It can be quite infuriating, however, to have only 15 minutes between classes when Google estimates a walk across campus to take 17. In winter months, students only suffer longer commutes as wet sludge and slippery ice are added to the equation.
A well-known component of Willowbrook lore, however, is the purported system of underground tunnels beneath the campus. Though publicly available archives only mention a system of steam tunnels, any staffer who shares the legend will talk of the passages being used for travel between buildings. Additionally, murderer Andre Rand, a former Willowbrook janitor, is rumored to have used the tunnel system to hide and transport his confirmed victims and others he is tied to.
There is no denying that the tunnels exist. If they are only for steam, maintenance necessitates that they be at least human-sized. They likely were for passage and are kept hidden from the public because of their disturbing origin.
Have mercy on our students from December to March. Restore and reopen the tunnels. Instead of sending students across icy pavement to inevitably slip, give them a warm, protected passage with a rich and compelling history.
