Five suggestions for SHU

Speak Out!  Print  E-mail

12/08/04

By Mike Rubino,
Cartoonist/Illustrator

Seton Hill University (SHU) is expanding at a rapid pace. Since gaining its “University” status, it has managed to almost erase the gender gap, create a thriving men’s sports department, build a new dorm with a second on the way, spend over a year building a new sports complex, and receive funding for a downtown theater project. While our campus is growing in many ways, it’s not necessarily growing in the right ways. Here are my five suggestions for making SHU a better place in the near future.

Hang out places - I’m not talking about weird bell towers or rooms with couches; I’m talking about restaurants, coffee shops, and lounges with unstained furniture. Places for kids to gather, instead of leaving campus or locking themselves away in their rooms.

Flex card reform - You pay a good deal of money for your meal plan. Instead of getting to decide how you spend that meal plan, you are forced to attend every meal. If you miss it, you lose your credit. It’s a ripoff.
The Flex Card system needs to be revised, so instead they give you just enough “money” to afford every meal. That way if you get the biggest plan, you can choose to use that money for every meal, or at the Cove, the bookstore, or other hang-out spots.

Network enhancements - The network, while running far better than it was last year, is still not as fast as it should be. But one thing that makes no sense to me is why your 100MB of server space, granted to each student to save homework on, can’t be accessed from your dorm. SHU is also way behind the times in terms of wireless connectivity. Almost every college I have been to has Wi-Fi on campus, allowing students to be more productive. It would be simple to set up, and cost next to nothing, even if you just put it in the library or in the dining hall.

Reasonable parking zones - Folks complain about this all of the time, and it’s true, we need more parking on campus.
The administration is listening to the complaints, but going about it in the worst possible way. Building fifty more spaces a half-mile away from the main complex is just going to make people angrier. You need to lay off the parking tickets, and then consider an actual parking garage in the area.

Credits per semester - SHU’s limit on covered credits per semester is capped at 17, an odd number limiting students to only five three-credit courses. There is no reason why this number can’t return to its former glory at 18, allowing students to take six courses. It just makes sense, and with the constant raises in tuition, they need to cut us a break sooner or later.

In the past three semesters I’ve been on campus there have been a lot of drastic changes; however, I can’t say they’ve been for the better. I only hope that the higher-ups will take my suggestions into consideration as they carry SHU hazard yet forward.

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