While students and alumni were treated to the biggest tailgate of the season before the Homecoming football game against Franklin Pierce, the new Peterson Performance Center loomed over the parking lot with a big reminder. It shows the commitment from the university and its benefactors to improving the student experience, not only for North Campus and athletics, but the educational side as well.

Having seen the new building and knowing the plans for what will fill it, the University of New Haven is taking steps to be among the best facilities in all of the northeastern United States. However, this isn’t the end. Work is set to begin on the new Hazell Athletic Center, an add-on to the existing Charger Gymnasium, to further upgrade the entire complex of North Campus.

While this will take time to finish, and may be after many of us are gone, it offers something to take pride in as alumni.

After talking with alumni this weekend, some returning to the university for the first time in dozens of years, it became clear to us how much progress this school has made. For many of them, the campus is essentially unrecognizable. Years ago, parking lots replaced many of the buildings that we now use every day. The campus has even already changed substantially for some upperclassman and graduate students in their four-to-six years of being here.

New buildings such as the Bergami Center for Science and Technology are statements of a school that has momentum behind it. It offers new opportunities for students that alumni never had, but look at now and take pride in.

The university is in a unique place; on the cusp of elevating their status to Division I and taking the next steps to growing as a competitive institution, they must continue to show students their dedication to growth. This is a primary goal of the university’s new President Sheahon Zenger, and it is something that should be applauded by students, even if it may come along after many of us graduate.