1. Coffee Stop
While we sadly can't have Starbucks on campus due to our food provider contract, we would easily be satisfied with another coffee provider. Our campus does not provide us with an easily accessible coffee outlet. The cafeteria is the only location to purchase coffee on campus, and students are required upon arrival in the cafeteria to swipe their card; this swipe automatically charges a meal usage. So if I wanted coffee but did not want to eat, I would essentially be swiping $8 just for coffee. The Lakeside Grill is another location possibility to provide coffee, but the area gets busy enough with providing food that adding the coffee shop on top of it would be stressful on the employees. Our campus needs a separate location of campus whose soul purpose is focusing on providing students, faculty, and staff with accessible, quality coffee in an enjoyable environment.
2. Light the Night
There are parts of campus that are less than ideal to travel through at night time because these areas are not properly lit. There are areas where there are lamp posts up, but the lights never come on. Other areas of campus simply just do not have the appropriate amount of lights set up. This is for security and safety standards.
3. Lock Systems/Card Swipes
It seems that every semester there is a period of time where student keys will stop working properly. Thus we have to request new keys to be made and the whole process is lengthy. It would be ideal for dorm buildings to be switched over to a card swipe system. Students could easily swipe their IDs for their door and be granted access into the dorm and their room. There would no longer be the struggle of fixing keys, and it is a more personalized lock system.
4. Multiple Student Lounges
In the past few years, the student population at the school has been growing. This past fall we had the largest population of freshmen enrolled in school history. A huge aspect of college life is student activities. Game rooms and lounges are an ideal hangout area for students across the campus, and provide students with entertainment for their down time. The campus currently only has one game room, and the condition of the room is struggling due to its inability to withstand the number of students that want to use the facilities. By creating multiple game rooms and lounges across campus, the concentration of students could be spread out; thus creating more sustainable areas and a more enjoyable experience for a larger population of students.
5. Give Us Back Our Benches
Maintenance staff went across the campus and removed many of the benches. I understand removing the old ones as they were beginning to be in poor condition and were very presentable. I was all for removing the benches because I was under the impression they would be replaced. However, there has been no replacement for any of these benches. Providing students with areas that have benches and gazebos allow students to comfortably enjoy their campus. When you take these amenities away, you take away that enjoyment.
6. Larger Security Force
The growing number of student will inevitably mean there will be a need for more security personnel. Having more security personnel active on campus, especially at night, will allow students to feel more at ease about their surroundings.
7. ENO Space
ENOs have become a popular trend in our generation. Due to certain landscaping projects, it has become very scarce to find places on campus for students to use their ENOs and enjoy being outside. Erecting "ENO spaces" is an easily doable projects and would provide students with another outlet for enjoying their campus.
8. Simple Landscaping
I do want to point out that there have been positive landscaping projects, and these projects made the campus look a little cleaner. However, it also left parts of campus a little bare. It may seem silly, but investing in plant life such as flowers and exotic greenery could really help boost the presentation of campus. The flowers and exotic greenery would add color and life to the campus year round, and make for a more desirable living environment for current and future students.
9. Provide Each Dorm With A Kitchen
Kitchen space is essential for a college student. While we may have the stigma attached to us that we each Raman noodles all weekend long, some of us actually have a desire to do better than that. There could be an array of reasons why a student may not choose to eat in the caf for a meal: they don't like the food provided for the meal, they have certain allergies, they're on a nutritional diet, their schedule wouldn't allow the time to go, or they may have simply missed the meal because they were at practice. Providing kitchens for each dorm provides students with that extra option to eat, regardless of why they didn't get to do so in the caf. Providng a kitchen also allows a student to practice providing for themselves when they're out in the real world.
10. Recreational Facilities
I know what you're thinking: We already have fields and courts, why do we need recreational facilities? True, but the fields on campus and the court in the gym are for the athletic teams. These are the areas they practice in and the areas they compete in. But because these are the only fields and courts on campus, those who do not play on an athletic team for the school have to use this areas as well if they ever want to play a pickup game. This can be a schedule of conflict because the nonathletes have to wait until all practices are finished before being able to participate in any recreational games. Providing new recreational facilities would allow nonathletes to space to freely participate in recreation activities, and would allow athletes to not have to worry about their field or court getting messed up. This provides an easy solution for both sides. We have the space to expand, I say we use it.
