Art pieces have popped up left and right around campus this year, but Wednesday, one piece of work lost its spot on the Esplanade.

The newspaper stack next to the Art Building appropriately named “Tilt 2005” was demolished.

The top of the sculpture had already caved in, thanks to students using it as a jungle gym, so we kind of expected it to collapse by now anyway. But university officials decided on the demolition with students’ safety in mind.

Their reasoning: a fear that students would fall in and fail to find a way out.

It’s always nice to know the university is looking out for our safety, but we just don’t think it was a good enough reason to tear down a structure intended to decay over time.

Let it decay.

If students are dumb enough to climb up there and fall in, then that’s their fault. No one should have climbed on it in the first place.

And if they ever found themselves trapped in the structure, chances are they would be inebriated.

These are college students we’re talking about. Not children, although the two can be interchangeable at times.

Losing one sculpture on campus is far from the worst thing to happen, we’re just sad to see it go.

The artist, however, wasn’t fazed by its departure, so there are no hard feelings there. The only toes officials are stepping on are the students’ who loved the piece.

Although we, along with other students and faculty at Kent State, were hoping to see it slowly decay over the next few years, we understand that the safety of students always comes first.

Hopefully, President Lester Lefton doesn’t decide to replace it with another sculpture and rebuilds the art building instead. So maybe this is a good thing.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board whose members are listed to the left.