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.

Chocolate River

Florida International University would have to build a fountain of youth, a theme park and a chocolate river for me to feel as though they need to change something. That is not to say they don’t need to improve, but I cannot think of anything that would change my experience as a student. I am extremely satisfied with both the Math Lab and the Green Library and use them constantly. I’m complacent with the advising, availability of help on mostly any issue, the vibe and scenery of the campus, the health center’s doctors, the gym’s role in the overall fitness of their students, with classes on mostly everything, including zumba, salsa, yoga, pilates, martial arts, etc., and GC’s sanctuary for marketing, connecting and enjoyment.

I would say the only minor thing was this Fall 2012 semester, my Finite Math teacher came in the first day and said, “I don’t even know why I’m here. I’m not even a math major.” That was very discouraging and he wasn’t the greatest teacher to say the least. The university should take high priority in assigning exceptional teachers, especially in math course.

I wish they would...
                               Honestly, I don't have any complaints for FIU. Anything I try to think of either someone has already spoken about it, or there is a solution to it already on campus. Nap pods can't be argued because there's a comfortable piano room, and library. The grading styles of essays we have to write was already discussed in the Beacon yesterday. What's left? I used to complain about the advisors. They didn't really help me out, especially that "Discover your Major class", all they did was put pressure on me, I didn't feel the love and understanding. No patience for the fact that I'm young and maybe lost in this huge place of so many people and so many choices. Forget the material things that I have to achieve, what about what's beneath it all?
                              Anyways, it's inevitable that I end up doing what I believe is best for me and choosing my own path. Of course I take into consideration the warning signs the advisors put before me...but I make sure that I keep myself in mind too. It might sound selfish, but in the end it's who is going to be put into the career or job. Live your lives with the smallest price. ;)
     Happy Saturday! 

Lounge Space

FIU has a large community of commuter students. As a commuter, I often find myself passing time between classes with nowhere to go. Because I don’t live on campus I can’t just retreat to a dorm room when I have free time. Often I want to do homework between classes, but I wish there were more places fro commuters to relax on campus. I know that the Graham Center is large with lots of places to sit, but it’s always so busy and noisy. The library is a good place to study, but I think a place with more couches and a comfortable atmosphere should exist. Perhaps there should be a lounge made just for commuters. It would not only present a space for commuters to go to, but a place where commuters could meet other commuters. This would facilitate community on campus. On a campus with such a large community of commuters, why isn’t there space dedicated to just them?

Resources

I wish enrolling for classes were done differently. I’m a transfer student so at the beginning of this year even though I’m in my sophomore year of college I was given the LAST day to register for classes. I realize that an order must be given and that we can’t all logon at the same time. The server would crash. I do however think that it’s unfair that my advisor told me I needed to take certain classes and that they were no longer offered at that point. I often here people complaining of similar issues at FIU. There are so many students and not enough resources offered. I was told I had to take a class, yet there were not enough seats. I’m told I have to park in a certain section in our parking garages, yet there are absolutely no empty spaces past 11 am in any of them. I wish FIU’s resources were as plentiful as there students. 

Sheltered Walkways

Not all of the buildings in FIU are connected by a sort of walk way with a shelter.  This becomes an issue when it's a rainy day on campus.  For example, one of the first days of this semester I got caught waiting 45 minutes under PCA because that building does not have a sheltered walkway to any other buildings.  Therefore, I was late to my lab class.

I wish they would create sheltered walkways that connect all buildings together that would eliminate the use of carrying umbrellas and allow students to not have to worry about the rain and making it to class on time.

Change Graham Center!

I Wish They Would (FIU)

I may be alone in my belief, but it is my belief and I feel I must express it. I wish the main hallway in the Graham Center wasn't always the marathon of avoiding solicitations it is every day. I understand that many great organizations spread their word this way, but couldn't it be somewhere else? I have to pass through the Graham Center every day and I'm constantly being stopped by people that want me to take a survey or contribute to their cause. “Buy a cookie to stop Al-Qaeda?” No honey, not today. Not ever. “Would you like to take a survey about urinal cakes?” Why would anyone?

I recognize my complaint is an utterly selfish one. I'm almost definitely overreacting, but I feel there is some truth in my words. Perhaps I get approached more than other people. I've always felt I'm pretty easily approachable. Maybe I'm just not very menacing, and people don't feel threatened to take some of my time. Even more troubling, I think I may be partially to blame for all the solicitations I receive as I pass through GC. Regrettably, I often make eye contact with people who are selling sweets or recruiting for clubs as I barrel through the crowd (Barrel might be a bit much. Maybe more like: get pushed around by people taller than me). I believe this eye contact leads them to think I may be interested. Spoiler alert! I am not.

Okay, so maybe I'm being a bit harsh. I'm sure those clubs and organizations do quite a bit of good and need GC to spread their word. However, I believe many would agree that party and club promoters have no place in the Graham Center. Of course, college is a time for partying and revelry of all sorts, but one of the most frequented buildings in the university should not be used as promotional space for things like a “Bro Safari”. I'm not making that one up. I have no idea what a “Bro Safari” is, but I already see bros in their natural habitat daily, so such an event is really unnecessary. At the risk of sounding too ready for compromise, I think that there should at least be some monitoring of the kind of things being promoted in the Graham Center- not because I think they're inappropriate or crass, but because they annoy me. Is that a selfish view? Probably. Will anyone listen to me? I wish they would.

The Limited Programs at the FIU School of Music

I didn't know much about the FIU School of Music before I auditioned. I assumed they would have, at least, a small range of music programs like many schools (like UM) do. However, I was astonished to when I tried out.
I auditioned with a song I composed myself (lyrically and musically) and I was happy with my audition performance. Then, the professors evaluating me shocked me by saying that although they "enjoyed" my performance I had to be able to sing in Italian and French. Also, that I could only audition with classical music!
I couldn't believe the music program was as small and narrow-minded as it is!
They then tried to assure me that I could possibly audition for Jazz (mind you I sing folk). They then topped it off by saying that the Jazz program was especially new, meaning it was not developed at all. They could barely even give me any information for it!
Basically, the school of music is so underdeveloped that they literally had no place for me. While other schools have plenty of different genres of programs to fit in to.
I was not about to limit myself to classical or jazz so gave up the idea of auditing again (under their limited standards) and ended up majoring in Communication and Performing Arts.
They really need to get their stuff together and expand, especially in this day in age!

Victim blaming from "empowering" FIU Victim Empowerment group

One of the things that most bother me about FIU is the literature passed out by many organizations and honor societies. However, this isn't a matter of personal taste in graphic design, but in media that presents both a false and Tyson Dino-nugget image of an organization. N.O.W. at FIU does a wonderful job in many aspects. I applaud them for their ability to remain as a feminist group on campus despite the ongoing pressure of society to silence themselves. However, I've noticed over time that many of the pamphlets they provide at events, such as at the Victim Empowerment circus earlier this year, promote ideologies and power structures that neither fit the feminist thought pattern nor serve themselves as helpful to survivors of sexual assault. These pamphlets, usually designed with some 50s' clip art in mind, outline many of the ways you *shouldn't* get raped, which promotes victim blaming and further strengthens the just world phenomenon, instead of breaking the perimeters of what it means to be raped and to be a rapist. I think these pamphlets are hurtful, especially when rapes on college campuses occur in situations where people find that the survivor has "deserved it", be it drinking, at a party, etc.

Our "Tobacco-Free" Campus

Despite FIU’s “Top 10 reasons for going smoke-free” there is nothing being done to actually enforce this policy. As noble as it is, the ground continues to be littered with cigarettes. You can’t walk anywhere without encountering at least one person smoking. And considering how big our campus is, that is a problem.

          I believe that we could actually make a compromise; keep the school mostly smoke-free, while allowing the smokers a safe haven. Recently, I visited a friend at Broward College’s central campus and there were designated smoking areas all over the place. The students who smoked used them and only them to enjoy their habits, while the ones who didn’t knew exactly where to steer clear of.

          As much as FIU and Florida and pretty much everyone else would like to stop people from smoking for health reasons or anything else, there isn’t much we can do to actually make them. Quitting is up to them. All we can do is help those who would rather avoid getting caught in a cloud of secondhand smoke. Building designated smoking areas, with their own benches and ashtrays built in would be beneficial to all. It would give the smokers somewhere to be and even encourage them to not smoke where they would be penalized or looked down upon. 

Breezeway

I'm SURE I speak for my colleagues with a meal plan that live on campus when I say that the prices of food and beverages at Breezeway are OUTRAGEOUS, BARBARIC, and RIDICULOUS.

Every time I step into our little convenience store on campus I just want to begin cursing and walk out. I thought Publix was expensive until I stepped foot into that place.
$4 for MILK? $6 for a BOX OF CEREAL? Obviously they have failed to realize we are college students which means money is scarce and our wallets are tight. Just because we have panther bucks doesn't mean the price of the food items do no matter. BUT WAIT what about the people who don't feel like eating at the restaurants on campus and decide to stop by? They must see the prices and want to runaway because I would. If it weren't for my wise use of my panther bucks I would never buy anything from Breezeway. The only thing I am comfortable with is the cost of their slice of pizza because their pizza slices are huge and delicious.. oh and the crack cookies... anything else is overpriced. I mean come on they must know that this isn't right. I think Breezeway should be like any other grocery store where it has buy 1 get 1 free and discounts. FIU is already sucking out enough money out of us as it is. With tuition, housing, and fees I feel like they should give us a break somewhere. But if Breezeway has been around this long and these changes haven't been implemented then maybe they never will... I just wish they would...

Class Times

Seriously FIU? Who wants to wake up before the sun officially rises for an 8am class. We have to do better. Some classes are not conveniently offered during times that students are comfortable with. Some students would rather have an afternoon class rather than a morning class. And what about students that work and have to have their work schedules revolve around their class schedule? Because of the availability of the class some students may not be able to take the classes they need at the appropriate time and fall behind or have to withdraw themselves from being full time students and drop to a part time student. Which only causes or graduation rate to plummet.

For Example, next semester my microeconomics class is at 8am on MWF -________- what is the world coming to? there is no other optional time and now it has just ruined my whole schedule. Also, the class is OPTIONAL to attend since it only has a certain amount of seats and there are more students enrolled than seats in the classroom so I can just watch the videos of the class online. But for a students like myself who actually like a teacher to teach at a reasonable time when I will be awake and alert I don't think its fair to me or my fellow colleagues that are Business majors.
Please FIU do better.

Creative writing as a BA major

                I wish they would offer creative writing as a BA major, I know that it’s a MA program at FIU but, for people such as me who wants to do some screenwriting in the future it’s frustrating that at most there is only a film certificate that could couple with a main major.  Often  people just take an English major instead of creative writing but I feel so much can be offered in creative writing course that can’t be attained in other majors.  In the creative writing class I took over the summer I got encouragement from my peers and the professor gave very useful critics for my writing.  I don’t know how many other people feel the same way but I find a large flaw in this university for not having this as a major.  

This is my list of demands dammit!

FIX THE DAMN WIFI!!!
For the love of gosh, I can't log in to this damned FIU wifi. And when I do, I get booted off. :/
Tough titty, I know.

WHATS UP WITH THE CONSTANT FLOODING YO!
Its like, I just got my pedi done and junk, and there these puddles errr where. Whats up with that.


Yeah, it was a two part rant. There will be more coming, I assure you.

If there was anything else that I would like to change about FIU it would for them to fix their financial aid office. They seem to be very unorganized and end up pissing me off, I have been there at least four times this semester. They would calculate things wrong and say I owe thousands of dollars when I actually didn’t. They said financial aid would be put through September third which it wasn’t.  Due to them being so unorganized I would have to pay a lot of attention to my.fiu.edu account and I would have to be checking it almost every day to see what new information would pop up. I didn’t want to over pay money because I’m not the one paying for it but my parents were. I don’t want to drain them of their money just to send me to school. What bothered me the most about this office is the threatening emails they would send.   I once got an email saying I would get my classes put on hold if I didn’t pay money that my scholarship was supposed to cover. Like it was my fault they were working on the scholarship and weren’t disbursing it properly. So when I went to this office to talk to them about my email they said don’t worry about it that it will be fixed. Why did they send the email out then? To make me hate them? They need to not send out emails like that if they are going to be working on the financial aid money. All they did was stress me out when I didn’t need to be stressed. 

If there was anything I would change about FIU, it would be the parking. The parking here sucks. More than sucks, it is horrible, atrocious, and just very terrible. The sad part about this is that I live on campus and I have to say that the parking sucks. The parking lot they have for housing that is right in front of Panther Hall fills up so fast. The moment you back out there is someone waiting to take your spot. Usually if there no parking there which is always, the next place to park is the field. If it rains the field floods and driving through that is a disaster. It makes your car so dirty and disgusting.

I really wonder why FIU continues to expand this campus when their parking is already so shitty. They have a special parking lot by Parkview Hall but it is 225 dollars extra PER SEMESTER to park there. That is way too much money and I think that it should just be free. How can you build a parking garage and then expect people to pay for it when there is already a parking and transportation fee that is included in the tuition. That is the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard in my life.

I remember this one morning when I had to drive here in the morning because I hadn’t come back the previous night. Finding parking was so hard. People are just circling around in their cars in the parking garage hoping someone would come out and they would get lucky. FIU really needs to improve its parking. That is the only thing I request of this school; that and getting their financial aid office in order. 

Menus, options, and times!

I wish Fresh Food had a WEBSITE where they showed the day’s menu. For the students who live on campus and who are freshman, there are two options for the meal plan. You either chose to utilize the VIP 5 or VIP 7. For the people with the VIP 5, they have to plan their eating around what Fresh Food is serving so that they are not buying what they could swipe their card for and eat.

As a student at FIU, I wish they would provide us with a daily food menu of what they are serving so that I don’t have to walk all the way to GC to find out that I don’t want anything at the menu and would rather go to Breezeway which is a two minute walk from my dorm. It’d be easier for the student to plan their day if he or she knew that for the following days they’re not wasting their time walking and looking for something to eat because they swiped their card on Monday when Friday would have been a better day to swipe it. Eating is an important factor in remaining healthy and getting through one’s day, but if we don’t know what’s on the menu, we can only assume so much.

Yes, I know that we’re growing and hungry students but it doesn't mean we like being surprised by the menu, and having to walk all the way over to Fresh Food to find out we don’t like anything on the menu. Having a menu would not only be beneficial to the students but staff as well, as it would allow them to gauge what the students are demanding and how they can make a bigger and better profit day to day. Florida International University is a great school and offers a variety of activities and options for students, and I believe making the breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu available to its students and personnel would be great and much appreciated. 

Sincerely,

The voice of many students forced to have a meal plan.

I Wish They Wouldn't

The Florida International University, or FIU for short, is a campus with a wonderfully beautiful layout. Everything is pretty well situated and easy to find; from the gorgeous golden panther to the numerous lakes filled the hungry, but friendly turtles, everyone seems to get along just find...except me. I truly believe that the absurd amount of construction that's currently taking place at our lovely campus is ruining it. Did we really need another Starbucks? What about that one building near PG5 that nobody seems to know what FIU is constructing? These little areas are being consumed by construction which just makes it that much harder to commute around the campus, especially when it's raining and you have only five minutes to get to your class. Constantly having to route one's self and make accommodations in order to make it to a class on time. All the construction sites are extremely inconvenient and I may be wrong, but I doubt their usefulness or necessity. I could understand creating more parking lots or classrooms, but instead we get a Taco Bell. Do we honestly need so many eating facilities especially since most of them open and close around the same time? I honestly wish they'd stop investing so much time and money on constructing things we don't truly need.

STOP SITTING IN YOUR CLASSROOM

It has been almost two years since I first walked onto FIU’s campus, and I can still remember gawking and feeling belittled by the sheer size of some of the buildings that surrounded me, not to mention the professors and students that that filled the inside of them. As I looked around I thought, “I made it, this is college, huge buildings crazy professors and lots of papers that will be due in the near future.” Now here I am two years later and many crazy professors down and honestly I have to say I’m still trying to figure out this whole college thing. But if there is one thing that I have learned it’s that your college experience is not made sitting down in the classroom and its definitely not made in those wee hours of the night pulling out your hair while studying for exams. It is my belief that everyone’s college experience is made outside of the classroom where you’re not engaging with fellow “students” but with people and friends, the kind of people that will help you out on that day when your car decides to break down on the busy south side of I-95, or when your computer decides not to work the night before a term paper is due. These will be the things you remember and take away from college, not your exams or the insane amount of classes that you will be required to take by the end of it all, it’s the people and events that will make college memorable for you.

Alright, so I’m sure by now you’re asking yourself why is this guy ranting about getting out of your classroom and enjoying you college life.  Well it’s because I think FIU needs to be focusing more on this idea and offering elective classes to students that would get them out and  involved with students, allowing them to set up events and activities that people might actually get excited about going to. I know there are already clubs and things like the SGA that are set up to handle things like this, but I’m argue that there are students out there who want to be involved, but simple do not have enough time in there crazy college schedule to commit to a full time club, so what’s the solution? FIU needs to offer these classes as electives, so those students will be able to get involved while still earning the required credits and able to keep the tight busy schedules that they need to. There are many things that current students are expected to do throughout their college career, but all of these expectations usually have to do with academics, I believe that being involved outside of your classroom is just as important as being involved inside of it, if students are not giving the opportunity to get out and get involved then they could be missing out on key memories that can simple not be made anywhere else in there lives.

-ADAM BOYETTE

 

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/twice-the-college-advice/2011/09/13/5-reasons-for-getting-involved-in-college-and-how-to-go-about-it

Parking and Transportation

I wish they would improve the transportation and parking accessibility at the MMC campus.  I’ve heard far too many complaints about the fact there isn’t enough parking for students. By the time it’s even 9 o’clock in the morning and most people can’t find parking spots any given place in the school and even as the school spends more money on parking garages the problem isn’t getting resolved.   

            The problem lies in the fact most students drive to school and realistically the school can’t accommodate the sheer number of students that drive to school therefore the parking regulation is terrible.  Instead of chaotically trying to squeeze all the students into limited parking spots there should be more effort in providing better alternative transportation and encouraging carpooling.  The money currently going into parking garages could instead go to creating bicycle racks and putting more money into better buses at school.  At the moment the engineering bus is small and usually comes about every hour and the bus for the CATS shuttle and Golden Panther Express to BBC costs about $2.50.  The engineering bus should come at least every ½ hour and be much larger to accommodate students who need to ride it.  Meanwhile the Golden Express Bus fare should be reduced to be at least $1.50 instead of $2.50.  I also wish there was a bus provided by FIU, that stops at key locations such as the international airport, dolphin mall, Publix and any other major streets for students who simply can’t drive to school  for various reasons.

this is a testtttttttttttt