Let’s be real for a moment here: I love Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University like you wouldn’t believe. This school has given me opportunities you couldn’t dream of and I couldn’t be prouder to be an Eagle.
However, there are some serious concerns I’d like to raise to the university that has been taking away from student happiness. If my beloved university can fix at least some of these issues, the retention rate would soar. Why? Because we, the student body, would love our school more than we already do.
Note: Due to the response this piece received, I have also written a follow-up here.
1. The Student Union.
For a project that directly benefits the current student body, there hasn’t been any improvement on the project at all.
Recently, we received an email that said that the new Student Union had broke ground and that construction was finally going to begin!
Yeah no.
Go pass the construction site and see absolutely no one working on anything. What you CAN see however is a very nice piece of land covered in dirt and unused construction equipment. When the chancellor held a “Town Hall Meeting” last fall, he made sure to tell everyone that the current student body is the most important thing to the administration. So did the brand new Dean of Students.
But notice that the brand new dorm for the freshman is almost done. Who cares that the upperclassmen – and even the freshmen – are crammed into a library too small to the point to where the university has had to open other study spaces on campus. Who cares that the current library can’t even house the hundreds and hundreds of books we own, to the point to where we have to shove them all in storage.
The Student Union will give more seating during lunch and dinner times, which is something that is desperately needed. Try to find a seat at 11 am on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. You can’t find a seat! The new Union will give us the free space we need to make ourselves comfortable in between classes, which is something we are unable to do now.
2. Parking? What Parking?
I’m not lying about this one. Talk to anyone who has a car on or off campus, and prepare to hear at least one story about how it took them half an hour one time to find a parking spot that was a good 10-minute walk from where they actually need to be.
As a student who pays a lot of money to go to this school, I shouldn’t come to campus at 8 am and not be able to find a parking spot. I understand that you need spots for “Brown parking lots” and “Blue parking lots”, but those are NEVER filled to 100% capacity. Your students need to be your #1 priority, especially considering how expensive a parking pass is.
As an afterthought, it would be wonderful if one of the next projects was possibly a parking garage, which honestly should have taken the place of the Henderson Welcome Center. You know, the giant building that holds the chancellor that hasn’t been used all that much? The expensive building project that has been dubbed “The Unwelcome Center” by the student body? Yeah. That one.
3. The food on campus.
Sodexo has some positives. There are probably a LOT of students that just scoffed at that, but there are! The two chefs that work in the UC Monday – Thursday from 4 – 7:30 pm are absolutely fantastic!
But try to get good food at the Student Village. If you dare try your luck at the buffet, have fun sitting in the bathroom for half hour later having severe diarrhea – or even vomiting, which is something I had to go through last year.
If you decide to go to Einstein’s, you may be lucky and get a decent Toastini or Bagel. Most of the time, though? You get the same thing every time, they’re out of what you normally want, or all of the food options are hugely unhealthy.
Let’s try the UC out for size!
You could have the “fake Chipotle,” which gives you the EXACT SAME ISSUES as the Student Village buffet times 10 no matter what you eat.
You could try out Freashens, which is surprisingly one of the few places I have found won’t kill my stomach.
The salad bar is fantastic, but let’s be honest: who wants a salad twice a day every day?
The mock Chinese place on campus is horrible. Honestly, I refuse to eat there anymore.
Chik-Fil-A? Yeah sure! If you can handle copious amounts of grease on everything.
Oh, and by the way, only 3 true places are open on campus on the weekends.
Embry-Riddle, we need food that we can actually eat. We need food that can be bought with a meal plan that won’t make us have severe gastrointestinal distress an hour later. We need food that’s healthy for you, not filled to the brim with grease, carbohydrates, and cheese.
4. Umm..... Who is our chancellor?
I think this one is pretty easy to understand. For a chancellor who received so much backlash last year over the firing of one of the most beloved deans of campus, Dean Glenn, he hasn’t shown his face much at all.
We don’t receive emails, we don’t receive blog posts, you can’t find him anywhere on campus…For a chancellor who claims he cares so much, where are you, sir?
Why do people not know your name? Why do people not know where to find you on a daily basis, how to get in contact with you, how to make sure you hear the rising concerns of the student body?
Where the hell are you, chancellor?
5. Show us why and how ERAU is worth $50k a year.
This can be done in a lot of ways.
Show us the most recent stats from the university. Display these amazing stats all over the school.
Show us who has partnered with the university to make our education better.
Show us GOALS for the future of the university. This was stated last fall, and by stated I mean, “We have a clear vision for the university.”
Mr. Chancellor, that’s all you gave us in an attempt to appease the student body since we were so mad Dean Glenn was fired and we were never given a reason why. You just told us you had a vision. Never told us what it was, who it involved, how long it would take for the vision to be complete, nothing.
I pay the university almost $50,000 a year to come to this school.
So show us why it’s worth it. Tell us what’s going on. We need some transparency here Embry-Riddle. Please. Because I do love my university. I’m so thankful I chose to come here over the six other schools I was accepted to.
But some things need to change to make your student body happy and to keep us here.
