After reading the title, you probably think this is going to be an article bashing Towson University. On the contrary, I love Towson University. I chose this school due to its great diversity, community feel, and beautiful scenery on campus. But, even the greatest places have their secrets.

1. SECU Arena has no locker rooms

Yep, you read that correct. SECU arena has no locker rooms. The mammoth building that opened in 2013 cost roughly 85 million dollars to construct and has no locker rooms. There is a tunnel that leads to the old Towson Center which is where the locker rooms are located. You would think an expensive, contemporary building would include one of the necessities of a large sporting complex.

2. No Tailgating

This is something that seems to be brought up every time someone mentions the football team. The administration and other school officials all say that tailgating is back but students know the truth. Cops patrol the tailgating lot and there isn’t a pre-game festival feeling. This is one reason the attendance rates at football games has gone down drastically in the past 2 years. Although I am not condoning underage drinking and uncontrollable parties, tailgating is a staple of college football and something that is run effectively around the nation. I’m sure the university's administration can think of safe ways to allow tailgating on campus.

3. Towson’s “Brothel” law

If you go to Towson, you have heard of this law before. It basically states that no more than 2 unrelated people can be on a lease for a rental property. What you probably don’t know is that it technically isn’t a Towson law. Certain parts of Baltimore County allow more than 2 unrelated people on a lease. The “brothel” law is only zoned in certain sections of Baltimore County, and those zones happen to be right by the campus. This law affects renters and land owners for the decrease in opportunities for both parties.

4. Parking

Every student at Towson knows how bad the parking situation is, and it is only going to get worse. Over 150 years, Towson has racked up 4 parking garages for a self-proclaimed commuter school. In the fall of 2016, 2 new resident halls will open. These two resident halls are meant for upperclassmen, who typically have cars on campus. The already packed parking garages will only get more full once these halls open, which begs the question, are they going to take away freshman parking next semester?

5. Closed Classes

Everyone knows the struggle of logging on to register for classes and seeing the dreaded word “closed”. Towson prides itself on the small classroom feel and this comes at a price when registering for classes. Although the classes are small, Towson bases its class closing on a ratio based system. Many kids go onto websites to find out which teacher is the best for a certain class and take them. Towson has created a way to close certain classes if the ratio for the other professors do not equate to the others. To put it simply, if a badly rated professor has two people registered, but a highly rated professor has twenty two, even if the class holds thirty, the “good” professor’s class closes.

As stated before, I love my school and wouldn’t want to go anywhere else. With that being said, these secrets of Towson are something that every student should be aware of as well as incoming freshman. My intentions are not to deter anyone from attending but to help the student body feel more informed about their university.