BY JESSICA HEITZMAN
SC Staff Writer

This article is not a bash or sign of hatred toward ESU. This article is to help ESU become a better university through the eyes and opinions of ESU’s students.

The students are the ones who pay to attend the university, and ultimately, they are the ones who see, hear and experience snags on campus grounds.

The arrangement of the following advice to ESU is in no particular order. The advice is not intended to hurt or offend anyone; it’s not intended to discriminate against any particular person or department.

Get out of the way! This is my parking spot.

Commuters have been on a rampage to see the parking conditions improve. This issue has not been resolved, and students become increasingly angry.

Instead of adding more lots for commuter students, ESU builds dorms. Why not think about commuter students first?

They have to guzzle down the almost $4 a gallon of gas, sometimes in only a week or less. Many of them have to drive at least forty-five minutes just to get to campus. Not to mention, searching for a parking spot isn’t the most convenient thing.

“Half the time, I think I use more gas driving around looking for a parking spot than what I do actually driving to the campus,” says an anonymous ESU student’s post on College Prowler about ESU’s parking.

Then again, they probably built more dorms for non-residential students to pay almost $20,000 a year and gain almost another $10,000 on room and board and meal plans.

“You have to be on campus really early in the day in order to find parking,” says another anonymous user on Collegeprowler.com “If you’re not, you’ll spend at least a half an hour searching for somewhere to park, and when you have to just park somewhere or miss your class, what do you know—you come back to a nice $15 ticket from campus police.”

Now, ESU has required a parking permit that costs $55 a semester. Students are supposed to pay this ridiculous fee when they aren’t guaranteed a spot.

Let’s think about it: A student pays $110 a year for parking that isn’t guaranteed. He shows up on campus around 10 AM for his class. He can’t find a spot, so he must park either in a non-commuter spot or somewhere on campus that isn’t a parking spot.

Now, the campus police give him a $15 ticket. He now spends $125 for parking. Of course, this ticketing could happen more than once.

If you purchase a permit that allows you to park on campus, why are they still giving out parking tickets?

Krystal Suhok, a Chemistry major and Junior at ESU, has been ticketed several times for accidentally not having her permit visible.

“They should look up the car’s license plate before they issue tickets to commuters who have paid for the permit. It’s not fair to buy the permit, then be ticketed after already paying to park,” she said.

Brr. What’s this so-called heat?

Students pay at least $10,000 a year to attend ESU. Why is there a lack of heat and constant air conditioning in the campus buildings, especially the Union’s commuter lounge?

In September, when it was still very warm outside and students could wear shorts, the Union felt as though it was 50 or 60 degrees. Many students felt ridiculous bundling up in jackets and pants when it was still summer outside.

“I felt like I had to dress for winter because the buildings were too cold,” said senior English major Jordan Frazier.

It’s understandable that no one wants to be in a stuffy non-air-conditioned room, but at least turn the air conditioners down, so that student’s fingers aren’t turning blue and shivering in class.

In the fall or winter when the weather is down into the 40s and 30s, turn on the heat so students can unwind and remove the layers of jackets.

Sh-h-h-h! It’s “Quiet Time”

There’s a “room” on the second floor of the Union that is a designated “quiet area.” This area isn’t so quiet when there are no walls blocking the loud happy-go-lucky students just a few feet down the hall.

Students who are in the “quiet area” have a problem understanding what it means to be quiet.

“I go to the third floor of the Union to study but can’t focus, because the noise from downstairs and the other people on the third floor,” said Exercise Science major and Sophomore Amanda Hanna. “The quiet place isn’t quiet if people outside are heard.”

Here’s a suggestion: Put a wall up. Block off any sounds that may come into the room. Just put up a wall to seclude the area.

Enrollment Services

Where do I begin? My own experiences with Enrollment Services have not been positive.

It’s ridiculous when students are terrified to go down to Enrollment Services and have to communicate with the staff who are supposed to be helpful.

Here’s the advice for those at Enrollment Services: Put on a happy face because we’re paying you to help us. Get personalities instead of sitting there like drones. Don’t turn us away and say, “the computers are down, we can’t help you,” because we know you can. Don’t give us the death glare whenever we need something, and if you’re going to do something, do it right—that means no cutting corners.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been to Enrollment Services because my advisor has changed so many times. One time it took them at least a month to get my advisor changed on Portal. It’s ridiculous that they can’t just do it right then and there, so I don’t have to go down there and wait in line.

Not all of the Enrollment Services staff give students a terrible time. We just want to be able to go down there with confidence, and know our problems will be resolved.

Excuse me, Professor…Professor!

Since the recent budget cuts, class sizes have almost doubled.

It’s hard for students to be noticed by professors when there are 40 other students in the class. It’s difficult to get one-on-one time with professors to make sure the student understands the content.

Of course, there are office hours, but many times students have classes during them.

The lack of attention isn’t the only problem. Some students can’t even find seats, causing them to have to find chairs from other classrooms. Plus, students are packed in classrooms like sardines.

Are you kidding? I can’t graduate because this level 300 class isn’t offered!

We’ve all heard it before: students struggle during registration time because they can’t take the classes that they need to graduate.

There are a vast amount of level 300 or 400 classes that aren’t offered during specific times of the year. There are even some level 200 classes that are pre-requisites that are only offered once a year.

Now, students must wait to graduate even longer. No student wants to do this.

Fifty freshman classes
and only two senior classes!?

It’s pretty pathetic when classes like English Composition have 50 different time slots and Junior or Senior classes have only one that interferes with another class, or is just not offered.

We pay more to get less.

Disconnected again!?

Those words are like bells to my ears. Anyone who has tried to connect to the internet at ESU knows all about sudden disconnection to the World Wide Web.

You could be doing some research or taking an online quiz; it doesn’t matter. The Internet does what it wants and disconnects where it wants on campus.

Countless times I’ve been disconnected after already being connected to ESU’s internet. We’re paying so much money and we can’t even get a suitable internet connection.

Not only are disconnections an issue but so is trying to connect to it.

Every day you must register your computer with ESU’s internet, in hopes that you connect first. Some buildings are different than others.

For example, in the Sci Tech building, there is a Bradford Dissolvable Agent that must be downloaded first… every day. This download varies in time from quick to slow, sometimes taking several minutes. Before, you used to have to restart your entire computer, but this has recently changed.

However, this isn’t the same in all buildings. In the Union, you must register your computer, sign in and restart your browser. This is a little more acceptable than the Bradford Dissolvable Agent; however, some internet browsers don’t comply with the registration and, therefore, you cannot proceed.

But once again, after you successfully wait several minutes for download and registration, you may be unfortunate enough to instantly lose internet connection. So, all your efforts and fist pounding have got you nowhere.

I understand that these registrations are to protect us from outside hackers, but why not make us download and register this hassle only once a semester or with new computer systems, instead of everyday? It can be done, and it should be done.

Another fee? What’s this for?

You’ve done it again, ESU. You’ve charged ridiculous fees.

We have to pay for copies starting at 10 cents, even if it’s our own work and not someone else’s.

We pay to park on campus when we aren’t guaranteed a spot and, we still receive tickets.

We have to pay for graduation. Yes, you read that correctly. We have to pay to graduate when we already pay for an education.

We’re already burning holes in our wallets and we’re drowning in debt for a degree, and now we must physically pay for graduation. It’s $25 for one degree or $30 for two degrees.

This doesn’t go toward cap and gown, which costs $42 and is of incredibly poor quality. This fee just allows you to graduate even though the credits prove it enough.

Class is cancelled?
I didn’t get an email.

Yup, class is cancelled, but you wouldn’t know until you woke up early, drove an hour and got to class.

Some students don’t receive class cancellation emails before they leave their home to travel to ESU. Or some students aren’t habitual about their school email.

Why not post on the front page of the ESU website a list of all the cancelled classes for the day. Northampton Community College did this, and its students found it to be very convenient as it was only one click of a button. The classes were also posted early enough to let those morning travelers know that their classes were cancelled.

We hope that ESU takes this article seriously and not that students are just complaining because they want to. We are the eyes and ears of the school. We are the ones who experience any problems on campus.

We need to be heard, especially if we are the ones who are paying to attend the university. We are the ones who guide incoming students to go or not to go to ESU. We are the sponsors and the funders of this establishment, and should we not get what we are paying for?

Email Jessica at:
jmh2643@live.esu.edu