Columbia, SC I — was pleased that the Columbia Design/Development Review Board chose not to rubber stamp Core Campus representatives’ outside decor proposal for the Palmetto Center (“Painting proposal meeting gets testy,” Jan. 26). My personal aesthetics cringe at their proposal; more importantly, I believe Core Campus’ justification “to stand out and appeal to its young tenants” is faulty.

Having a daughter who is a fairly recent college graduate and currently in grad school, and having spent the past two years going to school with USC students, I can attest that horizontal stripes and pastel panels are not going to do a thing to attract tenants. In fact, it might lead to the building becoming a campus joke.

What students are interested in are the amenities: Is there a pool, is there parking, is there a place to mingle, is there transportation to the campus? Price is the chief interest of students and their parents. How many roommates do we need to afford to live there? Is there anything included? Water, cable, washers/dryers or washer/dryer hook-ups? How responsive is management to noise complaints, leaking faucets, air conditioning outages? What kind of security is being offered?

Polka dots, plaids and stripes (and their ilk) are for kindergartners, not college students. Ironically, college students who like to pride themselves on being different rarely like to stand out from the crowd.

Diane Renko

Sumter