The Denver Advantage Plan - Year Six

I took a stroll across the University of Denver campus the other day and walked through the Community Commons Building (seen in the photograph on the left), which along with a first-year dorm and a new career center were supposed to be the first three buildings of what the Denver Post described back in 2018 as DU's massive construction project called the Denver Advantage Campus Framework Plan. The Post article said the project would also add restaurants, retail and a hotel within 10 years. Those first three buildings have now been completed, but there has not been a word from DU about the rest of the project. I suspect that it will not be completed on time during the next 4 years, which is a shame, since that hotel was supposed to be built right across the street from my condo. I was looking forward to walking across the street and meeting the chancellor at the hotel bar to discuss, over beers, my ideas for the university. Building that hotel is still a pretty important goal, since DU has a Hotel and Restaurant Management School, and most other universities with a program like that, including the University of Colorado at Denver, have hotels where their students can work and learn the business, a massive competitive advantage over DU. 

When the Advantage Plan came out in 2018, it showed a grand entrance to the campus from the north, with many new buildings. It looked quite impressive, but I have to wonder now if it was all just some sort of pie in the sky dream, and that the three buildings that were actually built were all that the university really expected to be completed, at least in our lifetimes. I remember when I first bought my condo back in 2000, there were plans by the university to build a skyscraper on the corner where they now plan to build (perhaps) that hotel, but after a year or so, the project was never again mentioned. DU also talked about starting a medical school to address the shortage of general practitioners, which I personally was hoping would go through. I planned to use my employee tuition waiver (I was the Finance Manager at the DU Bookstore at the time), take one class a quarter, and obtain my medical degree (I was thinking brain surgeon) by the time I was 70. Sadly, it was pointed out to DU that the reason for the shortage of GPs was due to the need for medical students to specialize in order to earn enough money to pay off their student loans, not a lack of medical schools, and the idea was dropped. Reality is such a bummer. I wonder now if I will ever have those beers across the street with the chancellor. A shame, since I am sure he would have been thrilled with my ideas for the school.