I Wish FIU Would...

          I’ve noticed as I walked around the school how FIU needs minimum improvements. The Freshman and Transfer Orientations needs to be shortened. I went to the Transfer Orientation before school started, yet it was such an ennui spending 9 hours there. However, the Freshman Orientation must have been agonizing for the incoming freshman class since it lasted two days, although sleeping arrangements were provided. The food provided for both orientations definitely energized hungry students—I don’t know how the food was at the Freshman Orientation was, so I’m assuming it was the same one served at the Transfer Orientation—, but the tour around the school should be extended for  students to stretch their legs.

          Unpredictable weather mostly happens, especially pouring rain. The moist air does give a fresh, cool breeze, but the rain causes people to be nearly or completely soaked from a few raindrops or hard rain showers. One day, I had to stay in the Graham Center due to the cats and dogs weather, causing me to be late for my last class of the day and getting nearly soaked. A pathway I took to exit the DM building and arrive to the U.S. Century Bank Arena had too many trees as if I was walking through a rainforest. FIU should hand out complimentary umbrellas, just as how they would usually give free shirts, backpacks, pens/pencils, etc. Students could get sick from the rain if they don’t stay dry. If FIU can’t, there should be covers built to easily walk to another building or trim some of the trees.

          The FIU Barnes & Noble doesn’t price their products fairly, especially textbooks. School supplies and personal care items are being sold unfairly for the most ridiculous prices. The textbooks’ prices are different than the ones Barnes & Noble charge online. FIU Barnes & Noble should change the textbooks’ prices to the ones Barnes & Noble charge. The prices should be reduced for students to get better deals in purchasing things they need in order to save money and the FIU Barnes & Noble would have an increase in sales.

          So many buildings in the MMC are being built, slowly transforming into a miniature city. Many people crowd around during events or clubs sponsoring like a sale in a shopping mall. Also, there are many restaurants where delectable aromas waft from the kitchens, many delicious flavors that could make anyone’s mouth water. More buildings mean too many people, which will probably become difficult for others to move around. FIU should develop more buildings in the BBC since it’s rather smaller than the MMC, allowing more students living in the area to attend classes easily in one campus instead of going to another, thus saving money on gas or from taking the Golden Panther Shuttle Bus.

          There should be more gardens in the MMC so that there are more colors than just already familiar ones. A garden is a place where students could really relax and/or volunteer to assist in taking care of the gardens, as well as learning about responsibility. Japanese gardens are known to bring tranquility, so, FIU should make one, especially with koi ponds for everyone to enjoy watching the beautiful array of colors swimming around, including the sweet scents of nature and experience seeing new kinds of plants and/or flowers.

          Too much water builds up on the sidewalk and the grass after a rain shower on the MMC Campus. People will literally get cold feet when their shoes get wet and go to a class where a tornado must have sucked up the chill from winter and stuffed it in the classrooms. The people who mow the grasses should find a way to make sure the ground doesn’t get too wet and someone should clear away the big puddles on the sidewalk so that the students can have easier access to go quickly to class without getting their feet wet on the way.

Tying it all together

Sometimes it feels like it's difficult to connect to people, especially on the first day of entering in college. There's even times when I feel like an outcast in the campus and I'm already a sophomore. I wish they would instill some form of friend app. There's always joining clubs and being a part of sororities/ fraternities but there are people that just don't have the time to be putting their time into activities like that. The idea I had was to make some form of an application that would be able to pair up students in an orderly fashions through key words just as other social medias use hash tags. Though it seems vaguely similar to just joining a Facebook page and joining in some group this would involve the whole campus, those who choose to participate anyways. I think it would make the campus more well rounded and allow the students to expand their friendships among other panther colleagues who share the same interests as they do. The idea is still loosey goosey but if anyone could actually work on this idea I would love to hear the concepts and proposal to FIU; I really believe this could help strengthen the college community as a whole.

Our Beloved Fresh Food

I'm usually not one to complain, but I must express my dissatisfaction with certain food choices offered at fresh food.  For example, I can't be the only one that is tired of having burgers be served EVERYDAY. If I wanted a burger everyday, I can simply go to the Burger King that is less than 5 minutes away, and that burger will actually be enjoyed.

Some of the food they serve, I'm surprised is even called edible. Just today, I had some "breaded steak" that was harder to cut than cardboard. Not to mention once I finally got through the rough, crunchy exterior, the steak itself looked stale and unappealing; it looked like it was having a worst time than I was. 

Granted, there some food choices I enjoy, so it's not like fresh food is a complete fiasco, but all I ask is for them to either remove/replace these food items. Then, I won't regret spending so much for the meal plan. 

The Outrageous Price of "Required" Books

I know it's not just me when I say that the price of books for our college courses are ridiculously overpriced. I can buy a great piece of literally for less than 1/4th of the price I have to pay for a book for class. With all the costs and loans that us students already have to stress about and deal with, the last thing we should have to be paying so much for is books! It's just another added, ridiculous cost for the school to make money off of us. And I'm not even going to go into how little (if at all) we even use these "required" text books.

Next time you're thinking of shelling out  couple HUNDREDS of dollars on a textbook, do yourself a favor and get a book off of ebay.com or cheggs.com!

Student Lounge

I wish there was a student lounge where student that will be on campus for hours be able to go and get a quick nap instead of sleeping where they can find space .   Many times students have an hour or two in-between their class but the only thing they can do is ether go to a friends room or their room , the library or one of the various place where student and facility frequent . There should be a place where the student can just relax something like  the teacher lounge, but only for students, we also get tired and need t just sit down or just take a quick nap to recharge . I wish FIU would create a lounge for students.

Professors, professors, professors

There is nothing more frustrating in a university setting when you need to take a class for its credits, it’s the only one still open, and it’s only available with a professor all of your peers have told you is downright terrible. You have no choice but to endure the slow and painful semester, taking a class you would actually enjoy were it not for the completely inept educator rambling incoherence at the front of the class. I don’t understand why universities continue to allow these incompetent professors to teach when there are much more qualified people who haven’t been given the opportunity to teach simply because there are no job openings. At FIU it is practically impossible to find and upper level English class with a professor who has received good ratings from students in either the trustworthy university reviews, or the student led “ratemyprofessors” website. Professors can hate the website as much as they please, but I can say with confidence that most of the reviews found of the website have been completely true. So, in my search for a wonderful English professor for my upcoming semester, I turned to both databases and inputted in the course search criteria the last names of professors which received outstanding ratings. Imagine my despair when I find that name after name, all of these professors which students have raved about, all teach the same subjects; English 1101 and English 1102. A good 60% of the English department is filled with professors for just those two classes. I understand that freshmen classes are very large, but is it totally necessary to employ so many of these good professors just for those two classes? Not only is it not fair that only freshmen, and maybe the late transfer student, can enjoy English classes the way they’re meant to be taught, but it’s also not fair for the freshmen and transfer students who took AP English courses in high school, loved and understood the subject of Literature and Language so much that they passed the tests with 4’s and 5’s, and therefore received the credits for ENG1101 and ENG1102. So then all of the English majors are stuck taking classes with mostly mediocre professors, while every freshman that opted out of taking challenging English classes in high school get to appreciate literature and understand how to read and write from passionate and worthwhile professors. I really wish FIU would pay more attention to their English program and provide professors that actually know what they’re doing, no student should suffer through an English course when English and literature is their passion. 

Another Smoking Post

                    There is very little I can suggest as changes FIU can make, as I have very few negative experiences with professors and I rarely do anything outside of attending class. I will say that I agree when everyone says FIU has failed with its no-smoking policy. I do believe that smoking should not be allowed on campus or any public place for that matter, because of second hand smoke. The problem is there is very little that can be done to enforce it. Something that MIGHT help would be to provide smoking areas, like they do at restaurants, so at least students like me can just avoid those areas and students can smoke without bothering anyone. It probably won’t help that much, because students inconsiderate enough to smoke near other students in the first place, probably won’t go to those areas. I guess someone still needs to find a way to enforce rules.