On the bad side, there’s the sudden lack of parking spots and the surge of standing room-only buses.

Then there’s the more nebulous changes. The ones that aren’t necessarily good or bad on the surface. The Wells Hall preachers fit firmly in this category.

For those freshmen and new students unaware of the phenomenon, the area behind Wells Hall has become a congregating point for many who seek to teach their religious views to any who will listen.

It’s a motley sort that at any time can include timid students, a guy playing a guitar, priests and the classic fire-and-brimstone, you’re-all-going-to-hell preachers.

I’ve been at MSU for longer than I care to admit, and any time the weather gets nice enough — and sometimes even when it’s not — they emerge, like a groundhog from its hole.

Last week, as the sun shone, sure enough they were back in full force. Walking through the area, it was fascinating to watch the reactions of fellow students. Although many students just walked right past the scene, there also were a fair number who stopped and listened.

There also were those who feel the need to directly engage the evangelists.

I’ve often stopped and wondered about those who would take the time to debate religious issues with a complete stranger. I once saw the same person debating with one proselytizer on my way to and from a two-hour class.

Do they actually think they can change the mind of their debating opponent? Or, are they simply playing to the crowd? Have they, by the nature of their actions, become another one of the preachers — albeit speaking a very different gospel?

I came to the conclusion it doesn’t really matter.

The Hyde Park Speaker’s Corner is a famous area in London where ordinary citizens can address a crowd. Although far from the only area to allow people to do so, its historical importance — people such as Karl Marx, George Orwell and Vladimir Lenin have spoken there — has turned it into a common tourist attraction and a wonderful place to hear some of the craziest ideas around.

Although Wells Hall is far, far from what the Speaker’s Corner is, in many ways it serves the same purpose: It furthers discourse.

As Michigan stands engrossed in the middle of a hard-fought election, it’s easy to forget that at one point debates and elections involved candidates actually debating one another by addressing points carefully, instead of simply parroting talking points and talking past their opponent.

The best way for a person to strengthen his or her own beliefs is to put them to a test and open themselves up to criticism. When people are forced to address the flaws in their own ideas, they suddenly find themselves with a clearer picture of what those ideas really are.

It’s possible that the person might choose to then discard that idea and take up new ideas, or instead cling more tenaciously to the old ones. In either case, they’re probably better off.

So what? That’s common sense, you may be saying.

What it means is that the Wells Hall preachers — and the Hyde Park speakers, and all the other people exhorting crowds of strangers — are doing quite a bit of good, but possibly not the good that they want.

It’s entirely possible they might be converting some to their way of thinking. It’s also possible that they’re pushing an equal amount of people further away from it.

Really, it’s fitting that this occurs on a college campus. It’s a cliché to say that people come to universities to find themselves, but it happens over and over.

People might not have seen the preachers in the MSU brochure, but they remain a fundamental part of the campus experience.

Just something to keep in mind the next time you’re walking past Wells Hall.

James Harrison is the State News opinion writer. Reach him at harri310@msu.edu.