One of the most bittersweet parts of fourth year so far is reveling in my favorite UVA traditions and knowing that this is technically my last year to enjoy them as an undergrad student. There's plenty about UVA that has stayed the same throughout my four years, like Lighting of the Lawn and Rotunda Sing, but my routine at school has also undergone several subtle changes during my time here. Fourth year is not the time I want things at school to randomly start changing, so excuse me if I sound like a crusty old person for my trivial complaints.
1. The Music Library apparently now closes at 11 pm instead of midnight
So far this year, I've mostly succeeded in my attempts to leave libraries earlier in the evening and have more time at home. However, the Music Library recently revised its schedule and helped me with this plan a little too much by closing earlier. It has shaken up my evening study routine on some nights, and short of applying to work there and close it myself at midnight, it seems like this is a permanent change. RIP Music Library, 11 pm - 12 am.
2. Sheetz on the Corner no longer sells fried pickles with their app platters
I shouldn't have been as crushed by this news as I was, but whenever I've gone into Sheetz late at night with friends and resign myself to the inevitable reality of getting an app platter, fried pickles have always been an integral part of my order. They're fried, they contain something that once resembled a vegetable, and they taste great with ranch dressing, so they're a win-win-win for me. With this recent development, I'll either have to grow accustomed to a new app order or just stop going to Sheetz when I really don't need it.
3. Classes in January start BEFORE Martin Luther King Day
It seems like the entire academic calendar is just a little off this year, for some reason. For the past three years, UVA has started classes on the Wednesday after MLK Day, but this year we start the Monday before MLK day?!? Would it be so terrible to have a slightly longer winter break and adhere to the same routine that students have grown used to for the past few years? At least we apparently don't have classes on MLK Day, so that three-day weekend will be nice.
4. Events that run out of food WELL before the scheduled end of the event
Fourth year trustees, I'm looking at you, but I'm also looking at the many other events I've been to this year where I've shown up WELL before the scheduled end of the event and am told that food ran out a long time ago. It's not that hard to estimate how many people will probably show up to an event. It's also not that hard to slightly over-cater because you know that no one minds if food is left over after something. Maybe it's a budget issue, but I'd rather have fewer school and council-sponsored events that ALL had plenty of food and drink at them, rather than a whole bunch of events that left me annoyed.
5. Too many football games scheduled at night, instead of the ideal Saturday afternoons
With the 7 pm game against Pitt next Friday, that will mark at least 3 of our 6 home games this year scheduled at 6 pm or later. Based on the people I've talked to, it seems like Saturday afternoon is the universally preferred time for a college football game, and with good reason: people are generally most free on a Saturday afternoon because there are the fewest other events happening. It's not even like these night games (besides maybe the Miami game) were even marquee matchups. Whoever makes the college football schedule, please stop making UVA games at night. Thanks.
6. The ratio of puppies to pumpkins at UPC Presents: Puppies and Pumpkins is not nearly high enough
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When I first heard about Puppies and Pumpkins my first year, I thought that it would be a petting zoo-type situation where the puppies, along with the pumpkins, were provided. Imagine my disappointment when I went to the event and there was like one puppy, and a whole bunch of pumpkins. I later learned that this event is generally BYOP: Bring Your Own Puppy. I couldn't make it to the event this year, but hopefully, local dog owners showed up and showered us UVA students with the adorable puppies we need and deserve.
7. People on 14th Street who leave trash strewn out on their front yard several days after a party
This isn't exactly a new change, but it does bother me that so many houses grow complacent enough throughout the year that by Halloweekend, they've basically given up on ever having a front yard that is completely clear of cups and debris. I feel bad for actual adults who happen to walk by these front yards and think about how they know their own kid would never be this messy, only to then walk by their own kid's house and see that it's the worst-looking one on the block.
8. The Cavalier Inn was torn down, and in its place will be...?
As I wrote in this article back in April, the Excel Inn and Suites is, amazingly, still standing nearly a year and a half after a devastating fire. In that time, the Cavalier Inn has also ceased to be. I know that the Cavalier Inn wasn't the fanciest or nicest hotel, but man was it convenient. I've heard rumors that the site of the Cavalier Inn might turn into a new, larger Fralin Museum of Art, but I don't think this has been confirmed. This proposed museum also is not the "green space" that I thought was going to replace the Cavalier Inn. Still, as long as families have enough hotels to stay in over graduation weekend, I suppose that Charlottesville won't mourn the loss of one hotel too much.
9. The Comm School now offers Financial and Managerial Accounting as online-only classes
When I first heard this news, I couldn't believe that a school like McIntire, which so strongly touts the in-class experience as a participatory and discussion-based environment, made two of its major prerequisites online-only. Perhaps this was to free up more room for pre-Comm students to take the class, but generally in that situation, you just add another class section. I don't see how anything about this online experience helps prepare you for the Comm School, besides maybe teaching you some accounting but without the consistent in-person guidance of a professor there to help you understand the material. Had I been thinking of applying to Comm now as a second year, this might have been a deal-breaker for me.
10. The "New College" curriculum is extremely confusing to outsiders
Whenever I ask my underclassmen friends what the heck their 1st year Forum and Engagement classes are for, they never quite seem to know what they're getting out of them. Maybe I'm just an academic purist, but I'm not sure what being "a future citizen leader for democracy" means at the undergraduate level. I also don't really know what was wrong with the way the curriculum that I came into school with was structured. Maybe I need to get a larger sample on this, but it just seems like this new curriculum isn't actually teaching students a more concrete, clear way of thinking than the traditional curriculum, and I can't figure out what new useful skills students are learning in these classes that they wouldn't have learned otherwise.
Despite these complaints, I really couldn't be happier with being a fourth year at UVA. Sure, the school isn't perfect, and some minor aspects of my weekly routine have been suddenly altered, but I really am vowing this year to be more adaptable to change. I'll have to do this when I graduate from college and find myself staring down the abyss of the rest of my life, so I may as well start mastering the recovery process of leaving my favorite library one hour earlier than I'd prefer.
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