Umass Honors College Probz

THe Umass Honors College might just be the best dorms on campus but there still are some problems with living there, whether it is the prces getting there or issues you find once you're there.

[kushbasu-blog]

...There’s...Not Enough....Space

Now just imagine, you’ve made it through the application process and surpassed the intense requirements for the Honors College and you’re finally in! You’re in those brand new dorms that you’ve heard so much about and are ready to live with your friends there next year... 

You open the room assignment page and you’re in room 317 in Baker Hall in Central.... Hold up, CENTRAL??? 

OH, did someone forget to tell you, not everyone that is in the Honors College Lives in it. In fact, the older you are, the less likely that is to happen.

Here are some facts you might have heard or seen before;

The CHCRC has “space for 1,379 residents” and is “designed to accommodate 572 first-year honors students and offers 807 suites and apartments for multi-year students.”

That’s a pretty sizeable amount, but here are some other facts that might change your mind. This past freshman class of 2014 accepted in 708 students into the Honors College and the Actual College itself consists of 3,380 students.

If the average class size accepted into the Honors College was 700 (which from the number of students in it, is actually much larger), then the CHCRC can’t even fit two full classes of students in it. While the administration makes the point that not all students in the Honors College want to live there, especially for seniors and some juniors who tend to live off campus, there is still not nearly enough space in the College.

Out of the students from my high school that came here, I know of 6 that got into the Honors College and out of that 6, only one willingly did not want to live there (and that was because he wanted to room with another friend who wasn’t in the college). So if you take that figure, that 5 out of every 6 students in the College want to live in CHCRC, then the CHCRC can only hold 2 grades worth of students and some change, still not enough.

What I’m getting at here is that the Honors College admits way too many students for it to hold. I know for a fact that living in the Honors dorms is a key factor towards deciding to attend Umass, it was for me and my friends. If you accept more students than you can carry, than the students that don’t get to live there are going to be pretty pissed off when they have to live elsewhere.

[umassamherstunite2015]

Behold! A counterstrike! Without directly attacking the culprits or openly stating that they are bad or their actions are bad, these posters get the point across.  These posters highlight some of the major issues with smoking and continue to facilitate the agenda of shaping society’s negative perception of smoking. 

These posters feature a good start, but not a strong stance against the issue.  They are subtly conveying the idea of no smoking.  I believe these posters should be accompanied by a more “in your face” display.  No subtleties in this version.  It should be large and blatant.

From day one of noticing the prevalence of smoking just outside Sycamore, I frequently thought about putting up a massive and obnoxious sign.  I would chuckle at the idea of throwing a few expletives into the slogan, but in all reality, the sign would be a giant NO SMOKING SIGN.

On a serious note, my NO SMOKING sign would have signatures from a sizable population of Sycamore residents around the central text.  This would make the issue a little more personal, as it would feature the handwriting of all those opposed and perturbed by the prevalence of smoking.  The sign would also serve as a Doctor T.J. Eckleburg of sorts (yes, a Great Gatsby reference).  The sign would just stare the culprits down as they proceed to permeate the air with carcinogens.   

[umassdiversity]

I’ve seen these signs outside Sycamore too, I believe! Though I’m pretty sure I still saw the regular smokers sitting in front of it and smoking as usual a few weeks ago. Not sure if they’ve changed locations since the posters and that email our RD Nick Rhodes sent us asking smokers to smoke across the street or something. Do you think you’ll act on that proposal of making your own more  “bold” poster?

[kushbasu-blog]

I saw one of these signs outside of sycamore just the other day! I know what you’re talking about and I hoped that they would be making a difference, but on my way back from class this morning I saw someone literally smoking right outside of the door to Sycamore smh. Looks like we’re gonna need some better signs.

[kushbasu-blog]

But, But, I was so close....

Do you ever notice how stressed some kids always seem to be about grades? Especially in the honors college? Well obviously you need to worry about grades, the whole reason any of us are here is to get an education and learn, but even still, sometimes it seems a bit much… Maybe that has to do with the minimum GPA requirement to stay and live in the Honors College.

It definitely makes sense to have some sort of minimum requirement to stay in the Honors College, especially to live there considering it is a privilege, but does it make sense to judge every single student in the College based on a single GPA standard?

A lot of students that I’ve talked to say no, it is pretty unfair to have all students try to maintain the same GPA as students of different majors just in order to be able to live in a certain place.

In particular, a lot of the students that have the biggest issue with this are those that are in majors that have constantly rigorous course loads and classes, such as engineering majors.

I spoke with both Connor Eckstrom and Matt Donnelly, Engineers in the Honors Engineering RAP about their issues with this. Both students missed the required GPA by a very small margin, but when housing appointments came around and they tried appealing to be able to live in Honors next year again, they were both told that they wouldn’t be able to.

Connor expressed how unfair it is that

“housing only takes into account how well you did during the first semester regardless of the difficulty of the classes. Especially because I came in with credits already and was taking upper level course right away.”

He was especially unhappy with the fact that housing didn’t even look at how he was doing in second semester around appointment times to check for improvement.

Matthew also had issues with the fact that housing did not check or have some kind of re-evaluation process. He said,

“I came really close to the required GPA, it was only one class that held me back. I still passed it even and I am retaking it to do better. Not to mention the fact that I did extra-curriculars like marching band, which is a huge time commitment, weren’t taken into account. I mean, no offense to anyone, but if I came that close doing engineering and marching band versus someone who just took gen-eds, I think I should be given some more leeway.”  

In both cases, these were students that worked incredibly hard yet were both denied housing that they wanted without any second consideration. Housing should have some sort of way of judging individual cases of students, especially in more difficult fields rather than standardize everyone in the college.

[ultrafoggykittybouquetblr-b-blog]

The students of UMass are clearly upset about this fence. Every student who I have spoken to over the course of my research has given some complaint to its inconvenience and pointlessness. Even students who haven’t seen or had to deal with this fence have heard about how awful it is. Although the fence stayed down for a while after it was demolished in the midst of the Super Bowl celebrations, when students came back from Spring Break the fence was completely repaired. 

What was even more shocking and confounding than the repair of the fence was the total silence of the administration. The administration has made no statement whatsoever in regard to this fence. Usually acts of destruction such as what occurred on the Super Bowl begs for some sort of reprimand from the authorities, especially since the school was so heavily prepared for Super Bowl riots. Instead we have received utter silence, a sign that the administration doesn’t even want to open up a discussion about the fence.

Lucky for us UMass didn’t give up. Soon after the fence was put back up, a student put up a sign that addresses Chancellor Subbaswamy directly in a reference to Reagan’s speech regarding the Berlin Wall. Not only was the sign hilarious, but it highlights what the fence is to UMass: a wall; a great big, dividing, infuriating wall. 

The poster is on the decline, bleached by the sun, faded by the rain, torn, and completely ignored. It’s appearance mimics the slowly fading ambition of the students. This is exactly what the administration wants! They think that if they ignore us long enough that we will just forget about it. We can’t let ourselves be silenced. We have to keep driving in our point until the administration acknowledges our existence. This is our school!

[kushbasu-blog]

I definitely agree with this, that the fence is really annoying, especially because I have two separate classes in Hasbrouck and one on of them is at 8:30 in the morning. The extra time it takes to go around the fence in the morning is really killer sometimes. Also, I remember how me and my friends went walking around after the Super Bowl and filmed some of the student reactions and I remember watching students around the Hasbrouck fence as it was taken down. There was A LOT of student support there so clearly, this is an issue that many students have and the fact that the administration decided to remain silent both about the tearing down and rebuilding of the fence almost belittles the students’ opinions.

[kushbasu-blog]

Its All About the Money, Money, Money...

Here we are, back again to critique the Umass Amherst Honors College Housing.

Now, we all know how nice the dorms in the Honors College are, there’s no denying that, but what about the price tag for this prime real estate? Huh, haven’t you ever heard? You have to actually pay to get into the Honors College and pay even more to live there.

You might be thinking, “So what, make those spoiled rich kids pay,” but now you’re just being a little facetious. Most people assume that students living in the Honors College are from well off families but that really isn't the case. A lot of students come from middle class families and have to take out loans to come here just like you.

I talked to Chad Klinefelter, a freshman out-of-state student, living in the honors dorms about his thoughts on the whole extra expense issues for the honors college. He said;

“it costs so much more money to live here than it does other places. Because you have to pay a fee to be a part of the Honors College itself and you have to pay extra to live there, you’re paying at least a $1,000 or more just to live in a double in the CHCRC than you would if you lived in a double anywhere else. Also the singles and suites cost even more than that and those are the only options upperclassmen really have in the Honors dorms.”

He also brought up another good point, the fact that there are students who got in to the Honors College and dorms and couldn’t afford it. “The whole thing is also really unfair for kids that can’t afford it. To have kids that worked hard enough to get in and be able to live in these dorms not do so just because it is so much more money really sucks.”

College Life is already really expensive so adding extra costs just to live in a different place is definitely an issue to most students. Living in the Honors College is supposed to be a privilege but it seems that only the privileged should be living there.

[kushbasu-blog]

Infrastructure

Everyone usually looks at the Umass Honors College Residential Area with one of two looks, either a look of awe and appreciation to the beautiful appearance of the cluster of buildings, or one of contempt at the spoiled students that get to live there.

There is no doubt that the Honors College is one of the nicest residential areas on campus and it certainly is the newest, but that certainly does not mean that it is perfect.

Despite how new the College is, there are still several infrastructural issues common throughout the buildings. For example, the new air conditioning feature in the Honors College is fantastic, especially during the brutal first weeks on campus, but that’s when they are working properly.

As the year progresses on, the thermostats tend to do less and less in terms of regulating the temperature, especially in the common rooms. Just the other day, it was a beautiful day out in the mid 50os, yet the inside of common room was boiling hot no matter what anyone did, the temperature wouldn't drop below 80o.

Another issue, probably the biggest, is the elevators. In each and every building there always seems to be a huge problems with the elevators, whether they are running slowly, only one or none of them are working, or even having students getting stuck in them. It doesn't matter where it is or what the circumstances are, getting stuck in an elevator is not a fun time. In fact, it happened to my friend Aidan Burke who lives a few floors above me. Late last weekend, he and a group of girls were stuck in the elevator for an hour and a half and while he remained calm throughout the experience, he admits it was quite annoying having to try to talk to people helping them and help calm down some of the girls that weren't as calm.

While these are the major issues, there still exist smaller but still important issues with the Honors dorms, such as bad cell phone connectivity throughout the area and the ventilation shafts that are in each room are very sensitive and can carry noise throughout the building. These things are also not very sturdy as one of them actually FELL onto one of my friend’s beds when he was going to sleep, without anyone having touched it at all!

It may seem like I’m complaining about little things considering how nice the college is, but when things like having a vent fall in your room and getting stuck in an elevator happen to your friends, you gotta be a little worried.