For lovers of this most recent video, you’ll notice how it carefully avoids Brooklyn Street in its montage. This isn’t just because McBride is butt-ugly. Over the past week, the college has swiftly removed every tree that once lined the street, leaving a flat and empty path in its wake.

This is a part of the ongoing restoration of Middle Path, an attempt to provide some long-overdue accessibility for disabled students and a safer soil environment for the trees. This stretch of Middle Path will be replaced with a firmer material, and 55 sugar maples and oak trees which are much better suited to growing in those conditions.

The downside? This section of Middle Path will be tree-less until the spring, and even then will be replaced with trees that are only three inches in diameter.

Still no word on how the Lorax feels about this, but I’ll keep sending him emails.

Sources: (x)(x)

UPDATE: Public Affairs has emailed a news bulletin elaborating on this, writing “Forty-seven distressed trees were taken down this week as part of the Middle Path restoration plan that will bring stabilized gravel to Kenyon’s iconic central artery.” Any questions about this project can be sent to middlepath@kenyon.edu.