Many of you, particularly the music majors, may remember the tunnel that connects Westbrook Music Building to Kimball Recital Hall. For several decades it has housed the lockers where the largest athletic band instruments are stored. The entire drumline and 24 sousaphones called it home until one fateful day last spring when torrential rains flooded the space. It turns out that there had been periodic leakage behind the lockers for years and the spring 2025 rain was simply a more overt version of a chronic problem. Fortunately, with quick thinking on the part of Jan Deaton and help from student workers the instruments were relocated. They were high and dry, but the lockers were wrecked. When the work crew tore them out to get to the leak they found a nasty combination of rust, black mold, and disintegrating concrete.
The way forward was clear: repair the leak and rebuild the lockers. To get to the leak the construction crew had to come in from above. A couple of weeks of three simultaneous jackhammers in the breezeway followed by some fancy cement work did the trick.
However, the tunnel exists in the no man’s land between the two renovation projects. It belongs to neither and was not included in either budget. This didn’t occur to anyone until water began pooling under the door on the Kimball side. This is how the lockers in the tunnel have risen to become the most urgent need for the bands. We were able to find temporary digs for the instruments (picture 24 sousaphones in an opera dressing room), but we need the tunnel storage to be fully functional by the time the instrument inventory moves back into Westbrook this spring.
This year the Glow Big Red campaign includes an opportunity to donate to the UNL Band Program Fund. It was established years ago to gather donations in support of the Band’s area(s) of greatest need. Donations this year will support the rebuilding of the large instrument storage lockers. The project isn’t glamorous, and the result will be invisible to the anyone but the students and staff, but it is critical to the operations of the Cornhusker Marching Band and Big Red Express. Help us spread the word so we can get the percussion and sousaphones back to where they belong.
Carolyn Barber