Mirror Lake drained, jump officially thwarted
I guess we’ll just jump in the Olentangy instead
The Ohio State University has officially begun a reconstruction project that will improve upon the areas surrounding Mirror Lake. The reconstruction project is set to be completed by the Spring of 2018. In preparation for the restoration, Mirror Lake will be drained tonight.
That means, of course, that the lake will be empty during the week before Thanksgiving break when students traditionally participate in the Mirror Lake Jump.
The timing of the restoration seems intentional, given the incidents surrounding last year’s jump. Austin Singletary, a third year student at Ohio State, died last year during the jump. Not long after the tragic accident, the Ohio State University officially announced that the jump would be canceled for the following years.
Restoration on Mirror Lake falls in line with several other construction projects that OSU has initiated over the last year. Several students feel that the University has already slighted them by removing some of the best on-campus bars and shops, and feel as if the University is not taking into consideration our wants when making decisions about the school’s future.
This project is no exception. Chris Davey, a spokesperson for the university explained, “The jump ending is a consequence of the construction, but not the driving factor in restoring the grounds.”
The reconstruction process is estimated to last around 18 months — however, even after the construction ends and the lake is refilled, the new and improved Mirror Lake will sport wetlands around the lake’s perimeter and the depth of the lake will be a mere inches deep, which will inhibit future student’s ability to jump into Mirror Lake at all.
In a press release put out by The Ohio State University, it was made abundantly clear that while the restoration of Mirror Lake is in part to redesign the lake to make it “more natural and sustainable,” it also serves another purpose: to support the “university’s compelling interest, shared by student leaders, in seeing the recent practice of a Mirror Lake jump ended.”
It is yet to be seen how students will react to the lake being drained before the annual jump. Some students are already offering alternative plans. Possible plans include jumping tonight, refilling the lake with our tears, or jumping into several kiddie pools instead.
It seems as if the jump will officially be put to an end this year — after years of failed fences and regulations, the decision to drain the lake is the only sound solution. Unfortunately, it means that for the first time since 1990, not a single student will be able to jump into Mirror Lake.