I don't know where this is so can't really comment on this particular situation.
But the general idea of skyways, while making walking from building to building easier, would also isolate these pedestrians completely from the surrounding environment -- in particular, from other people who live and work in the city but don't have access to universities' buildings. How do you feel it works in your university?
I don't know about his university, but I figured you might be interested in this too.
We have a '+15' system in downtown Calgary such that most of the core office towers are connected on the second floor. Parts of the first two floors of most buildings are open to the public, and tend to be commercial space.
Reading the Wikipedia page, it seems some people have been wondering if they're making the streets less vibrant, but quite frankly even if they were, the enclosed walkways would still be worth it for winter. It can get brutally cold on the Canadian prairies.
Winnipeg has central Canadian weather, going down to -40 celsius wind chill. Brr. Skyways and subway walks are about the only way to go for pedestrian access in a city where the climate for half the year threatens hypothermia within ten minutes of exposure to surface temperatures.
In contrast, I live in Edinburgh. The all-time high temperature was around 30 celsius, but it only drops below freezing at night during a couple of months. The city predates the automobile; as a result, unless you move out to the suburbs, it's entirely walkable. And guess what? The Council is currently holding a consultation on a blanket reduction in the vehicle speed limit to 20mph except on designated high-volume routes.
They are outdoor bridges, so perhaps I used the wrong term. I do not feel like it sucks any life out of the scene, since even some of the bridges have bridges between them to connect over some nice landscaping.
The university I went to is not like the one I see in Madison or Chicago. The entire campus was self contained and did not have non-university buildings there. So not much car traffic through the actual campus (as there were few roads, although the walkways were wide enough for maintenance vehicles to get around).
