Curtains

I was talking with a friend of mine about our surroundings inside at Ithaca College. The walls are all one color in at least every building I have been in. I understand why they do this, who would take the time or the money to paint them different colors. This is easily fixed in a dorm room. Buy some tape and stick some posters on your wall, then not only do you have some color, but you have character and home to your room. The one thing you cannot change are the curtains. I like a lot of light in my room and i would love to have the windows and curtains open all the time, but no matter what you do to these curtains they are still covering half of your window, that is a lot of light that I am missing out on.

Laundry

I have had the same laundry routine since I got to school. I get up at about 8 every Tuesday morning, go from the first floor to the third floor, put my laundry in the washer and go back upstairs to go back to bed. Then I get up a half and hour later and repeat. I choose to get up at 8 instead of fighting off everyone else in my dorm who choose to do laundry at a normal hour. There are three floors each with two wings that hold at least 19 students. Thats 114 students in Eastman hall who share two washing machines and three dryers. No wonder a friend of mine does her laundry at 2 in the morning and i get up on my day to sleep in. I think there should be a laundry room on the first and third floors and leave the kitchen to the second. Maybe only put on washer and two dryers in one of the rooms. No matter how they choose to do it, I think the laundry rooms need to be reevaluated.

Re: Why bosses are always right

This is in response to Chris's blog. I agree with Chris that working for someone and confronting them is very difficult. My boss is very very forgetful and my friends and I always have to tell her things over and over again and then write them down so that she remembers them. And even then she often doesn't get it right. We have had several occasions when one of us asked for the day off and that was the only day that week that we were on the schedule and then of course it was our job to find someone to cover the shift. How are we expected to respect her or want to work there if she runs her business like this? It is really sad because it is a great place to work and I always have a lot of fun. I just wish she were a little more approachable and organized.

Re: Registering for classes 2008

This is in response to Jordan's blog about registering. I agree that there should be tighter registration periods. However I do not think it should be done by credit. I worked very hard in high school and took the harder classes. But they were not AP courses. I graduated with 23 kids. My high school was to small and did not offer AP courses. So I didn't transfer in with any credits. I would have if my high school had offered. But it didn't. I think that organizing it by semesters completed would be better. No matter how they organize it someone is going to get screwed out of a classes. The same as housing, people are going to be mad if they don't get what they want, and it is very hard to get everyone what they want.

http://theithacan.org/am/publish/editorial/200803_Closing_doors.shtml

This article in this weeks Ithacan is about choosing the colleges new president. President Williams is leaving very soon and we are not even close to picking a qualified president. The article briefly talks about the two candidates for IC president. Neither have the experience or the liberal outlook one would choose to run a college like Ithaca. The article proposes picking the best of two evils for our president or extending the search. I really hope the committee chooses to extend the search. A president of a college is a very important position and we do not want to rush into a decision. It is much better to take longer and pick a better candidate then to choose blindly from two bad candidates just to get the search over with.

Locked Out

Unfortunately several times this semester a friend of mine has had uncontrollable asthma attacks and we have had to take her to the health center on campus. These asthma attacks have all occurred at night. Why is it that we have to buzz in to the health center, explain why we are there, stand at the door for a nurse to mossy on over, explain again what we are doing there, and then be let in? I am very disappointed with this system. On a college campus, where the night is the most likely time to need health care services, the students can not get that help very easily. My friend Diana can not take the trips to the health center alone because she would not be able to stand on her own, buzz in to the nurses, and explain why she is there over and over again. It just isn't possible, she would pass out. Luckily I have been available to go with her each time. I think that the Health Center should reconsider this "after hours" system.

Attendance policy

The writing department and I'm sure others on this and many other campuses have an attendance policy. I understand the appeal of making students go to class. That is what we are here for. However, I think that is should be a professors policy, not a departments policy. I have mono and I have been to every writing class because I don't want to use up my three absences. Because this is a department policy I don't have leeway on my attendance. If it were my professors policy then I could have a discussion with them and most likely get excused absences like I have in most of my other classes. I feel like in college we are in charge of how we learn and if a student can go to class for the exams and to turn in the homework and they can still get an acceptable grade then attendance shouldn't be mandatory. And if attendance is mandatory it should be the professors call, not the departments.