Over the past year a few things have changed at JSU, and some of them have stayed the same. I asked a group of students if there was anything about JSU that they didn't like and wanted to question. I got a lot of responses, and even examples. I wanted to share those here in hopes that maybe a faculty or staff member, or even President Beehler himself would take note of these and try to make a change for us, the students, the ones who pay the bills.
1. Why are there so many issues with housing?
If you ask me housing is one of the most important things to look at when choosing a school, and ours is from par, and other than the lack of options here are a few reasons why:
-- The "First-Come-First-Serve" statement is a lie! One student got neither of the dorms she requested, but her friend who applied five months later did receive one of the requested rooms.
-- One student applied for housing in May and didn't receive her housing assignment until 2 weeks before move in day! When she continuously called and emailed housing, eventually on an every-other-day basis, and when she finally got a response, a month later, they told her that they had only gotten to 5 applicants! Some didn't get one at all!
-- There were even a few students who paid the nonrefundable application fee, and never even got a room assignment!
-- Rumor has it that JSU is raising the nonrefundable housing application fee to $200 and issuing all freshmen, other than those in Calhoun County, to live on campus next year, No Exceptions. When they didn't even have enough room to accommodate the students that lived on campus this year!
2. Why do we have our heating and air on one unit?
This is most likely the largest complaint I got when I asked people to express their issues and as a resident on the fourth floor of Fitzpatrick Hall, I completely understand why!
-- Each room in a building has a different temperature, especially in buildings that are the size of dorms, depending on what floor the room is on, how big or small it is, and how many people are in it!
-- Every person is different and takes temperature differently.
-- Dorm tenants pay almost $2,000 to burn or freeze to death because they don't get a choice in whether or not the unit in their room blows heat or air, and yet they aren't allowed to have heaters or window units!
3. Why isn't there 24 hour visitation at some dorms?
Its really confusing to students why residents at dorms such as Logan and Meehan Hall can have 24 hour visitation all week, of both sexes, and dorms like Fitz and Curtiss can only have overnight visitation, if they are female, on the weekends.
-- All dorms should have the same visitation rules.
-- All dorms should allow overnight visitation, of the either sex., every night of the week. We are college students NOT babies!
4. Why isn't there a custodial crew in the dorms, on duty, on weekends?
This question pretty much speaks for itself, but here are few reasons why the students think this should become a priority!
-- All dorms can get pretty nasty, but for the ones that share bathrooms it can get absolutely disgusting!
-- The last cleaning crew comes through on Friday, and by the time Saturday comes around the toilet paper is out, and the floors are sticky with no one to clean until Monday!
5. Parking. What is up with the parking??
If you attend JSU you know what I'm talking about, and if you live on campus you are more than tired of this issue, but apparently the people in charge don't see the issue so here are a few specific complaints:
-- Students pay over $5,000 in tuition, plus payment for parking decals and yet they have to move their cars across campus on game days so that the school can make a $10 per car profit off of game goers, really?
-- One student told me that she doesn't get off of work until after midnight, has to park her car at the library, and then walk all the way across campus to her dorm. AFTER MIDNIGHT!
-- There are also students that live in dorms, such as Fitz, and Daugette, that have to walk half a mile to the nearest parking lot when there are parking spots right in front of or beside their dorms that they aren't allowed to use. (Ex. Spots in Trustee Circle, and on the sides of the Central Bus Stop)
6. Why do we HAVE to have a meal plan if we live on campus?
Every student living on campus has to purchase a meal plan for upwards of $1,540, but we have a few issues with that:
-- Flex and meal swipes DO NOT roll over from year to year or even semester to semester, even though we've paid for all of them!
-- There aren't enough dining options on campus. After paying that much money, most college students are BROKE, too broke to eat off campus when they are tired of the same six choices everyday!
7. For a college town, why is there NOTHING to do on the weekends?
Some students don't get the option to go home every weekend, and for those that don't they don't want to spend all weekend in their room.
-- Believe it or not, not ALL college students like to party!
-- If you aren't in a frat or sorority, or you aren't interested in sports then you have nothing to do on the weekends, everything around campus revolves around sports and Greek life!
-- The school should plan events on the weekends that will interest college students!
8. Can we talk about communication?
Being in college is NOT easy, especially for a first time Freshman who is just learning the ropes, so being at a campus with TERRIBLE communication issues is a HUGE problem! Here are a few examples of when JSU has been worse than bad:
-- One student wasn't told about her scholarship being taken away from her, she just happened across it on her own.
-- Another wasn't told when their financial aid was being removed!
-- One female student received an email telling her that she owed almost $1,000 on her account THREE DAYS before the deadline.
-- There was one student who was told by an adviser to take a certain amount of hours only to find out she needed almost twice that many to achieve sophomore status!
9. What do you pay the people in the financial aid, scholarship, and loan offices to do?
Other than the fact that it takes MONTHS for scholarships to go into accounts, students aren't notified if they are in danger of losing their scholarships, and our loan officer retired and we didn't get a replacement, the students have a few more issues!
-- Students should be notified if they are in danger of, or have lost their scholarship/financial aid, as well as, any other changes made to their accounts.
-- It takes months for the Financial Aid office to respond to students and/or resolve any issues.
-- Students weren't informed of their loan status until almost a month after applying, therefore causing them to have to begin payment plans at the last minute.
10. What is the point in having some of these staff members?
Not only are some professors just not following procedure, our advisers only know about their department and can't help us out with anything else, not even general questions about the school!
-- Some teachers won't set up office ours because they are " too busy" but yet they won't respond to any of you emails either. If they are so busy maybe they shouldn't be teaching that class.
-- There was a student who was cleared by her adviser to register for classes but when she went online, she actually wasn't cleared but her adviser didn't respond to her emails until 2 weeks later, causing some of her classes to be completely full.
-- Every student fills out surveys at the end of the semester but a lot of them feel like it is pointless if the professors aren't reprimanded.
-- All University staff should be disciplined and/or let go after so many complaints!
11. How are you going to raise tuition and NOT tuition scholarships?
Being able to afford it is the most important decision you have to make when choosing a school. You have to calculate what you can get in scholarships, loans, financial aid, and then still have to pay out of pocket. A lot of students BARELY make it, so how do you expect them to change that decision inbetween semesters, if it takes a year of planning for some?
-- There was a 3% raise in tuition in between the fall and spring semesters but yet there was no 3% raise in tuition scholarships, some scholarships were even decreased!
-- Every student now has to pay $100 in technology fees, $25 for a student activity fee, $200 for a general activity fee, and $50 for an athletic fee, even if you don't take place in athletics!
--This isn't even including the class fees that have been added to students' accounts for classes that students have to take in order to get their diplomas, such as a $40 science course fee.
-- If the school is going to add fees and raise tuition, there should at least be a description along with it so that students will know where their money is going. Even though they have meetings to discuss a lot of things, there are a lot of students that can't make it but still deserve to know.
