If you are looking for a “Stute” related Editorial this week, come back next week.
Today is about the changes this campus has faced in only the past two years. Everything in the following article is completely opinionated. Some of these differences from when I stepped foot on campus are great, while others make me feel old when I mention “the good ol’ days”. I have compiled a list of differences in no particular order!
ACUP: Starbucks → Zaro’s Family Bakery
I am a huge fan of Zaro’s Bakery. Starbucks had rock-hard bagels, mediocre breakfast sandwiches, and stale croissants and muffins. It was consistently underwhelming, and no options made you feel like you were eating sustainable food. Zaro’s bagels are fluffy, light, and toasted with options for a few different flavors of cream cheese! Compared to what we had, they’re an upgrade in my eyes. But I want my iced coffee back! I do not understand how you can take away caffeine from college students.
Snacks Swipes
This enrages me. The saying, “you won’t miss it till it is gone,” is very applicable here. Snack swipes were helpful when you were studying at night and needed a pick-me-up, but did not want to waste a whole meal swipe. How is it that with snack swipes gone, our portioning for meal swipes has also decreased; should it not be the opposite? Especially for those with the smaller meal plan who relied on snack swipes. Now that they are gone, they have a few extra meal swipes that do not equate to the number of times they could eat on campus with snack swipes.
Library Renovations
Let’s take a little break from food and look at our new library. We put out an article about the library renovations and reached out to 20+ student leaders to get their quotes on it. So few wanted to answer, but had a lot to say behind the scenes.
Besides the point, unlike previous years, this was not a “leftover” amount of money used towards renovations; it was strategically put aside in early February. Student leaders I have spoken to have felt their budgets were decreased to accommodate SGA’s budget for this project. With this in mind, I do not approve of the new furniture. The least you could have done was not make it plastic. Anyone utilizing the library is already depressed about the work they have to do; looking at grey and black furniture makes it more upsetting. The couches are bright blue, with no new outlets in sight, and push a modern style that does not fit our library. The style of the new furniture, in my eyes, does not complement the building around it.
Library Hours + Drop-in Tutoring
From Monday through Thursday, the latest the library is open is midnight — that is simply unfair. We are students who are balancing our basic needs and academics. We used to have until 2 a.m. Sunday through Thursday to get everything we needed to get done in a day. I am not saying it is a healthy habit, but necessary when going to a tech school like Stevens. Shortening the weekend hours even more is also atrocious, considering most of the studying for our exams gets done then.
To add insult to injury, the drop-in tutoring center—which helped me complete the bare minimum homework assignments for my classes—may be closed until finals because faculty believe resources may be better allocated. A lot of students, like myself, do not have time to schedule hourly sessions and only realize our struggles with certain concepts while studying. Getting rid of an option that was so readily available is upsetting and so telling about how budget cuts are affecting our school.
UCC Marketplace
UCC has undergone extreme changes over the last few years. Thank you for getting rid of Rotate, Fantastic Flats, and Grill Nation — they were horrendous and inedible. Yellas, although a decent replacement for Grill Nation, has smaller portions and no option for salads, which is upsetting. My friends, to this day, still complain about how we used to have 18-oz soda bottles with our meal swipes, but now are given 12-oz cans. Back in my day, there were no upcharges for a bottle of some peach iced tea. It is disheartening to see what our meal-swipes have become. How does a croissant and no iced coffee equate to a burger, fries, and a 12-oz drink?
Once again, these are only my opinions and feelings. There have been some great changes to this campus, yet the reality is that we are facing some major budget cuts. Research labs are barely being funded, Stevens has already laid off 45 employees, departments are merging to survive, and there is nothing we can do about it. To love a school so much and watch it change this drastically is horrifying. You should say, “Wow, the first-years have it way better than when we were in their position,” but I feel we can’t. I fear that it is quite the opposite.
