“But don’t you go to Kent State? Shouldn’t you, like, be proud of that?” I didn’t say I wasn’t. I’m full of KSU pride! Go Flashes! Blue and gold all the way! Take eight semesters, possibly more, of student loans out of me, loans that will probably take me into my late thirties to pay off? Sure, why not?! There are other things that totally suck at Kent State University.
About that last one….
Students should be proud of both their education and the institution that provided that education as well as other life-building opportunities. But in the real world, some things about university just kind of suck. No matter where you attend. These ten factors about Kent State University, for example, suck:
Fall semester is coming to a close and all that chilly weather, with the wind and the icy rain, is on its way. But before you take your usual route to class through Risman Plaza, you might want to either invest in a decent a windbreaker or find another route. When that lovely Kent State University fountain goes dry for the season, you know it’s time to avoid the wind tunnel created between the library and student center.
Please, dear maintenance crew, listen to this outcry! Think of how much extra tip money you could make just uber-ing students around campus when it’s raining or some girl can’t walk another step in her four-inch heels. Sadly, if you try to ask a crew member for a lift in his golf cart, the answer will more-than-likely be a strong no.
When your foreign language class is in Merrill Hall (the sociology department) and world history is in Satterfield (the languages building)… Kent State asks, “what is this ‘coordination’ you speak of?” This spring semester, I’m going to love being in the art building…for Intro to Human Communication? Okay, so a good 80 percent of the time classes are in their designated buildings, but walking across campus for Intermediate Italian in Merrill is more legwork than my run at the rec center this morning.
If you don’t already know what the historical significance of May 4th is and you go to Kent State University, you might as well just drop out now. No, but really, May 4th is infamous at KSU and all over the world. Long story short, on May 4th, 1970, an on-campus protest about the invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War resulted in Ohio National Guardsmen (for a still debatable reason) to fire into the crowd, fatally wounding some protestors. (Read more here) It only sucks that it happened, that innocent people lost their lives for practicing a freedom they were guaranteed under constitutional law, fighting for a cause they truly cared about.
Whether you’re living in Tri Towers, carrying a backpack full of stats work in the Mathematical and Sciences Building, or the Student Resource Lab in Franklin has you weighed down with camera equipment, taking the stairs might look like a warrior’s dash at times. To be honest, when you’re carrying that much weight, any elevator in any building on any college campus seems like a longer wait than usual.
Kent State is a very modern and diverse public university in Northeastern Ohio. Modern socially, educationally, and, well, they’re working on the structurally part. They’ve got “gadgets and gizmos a plenty, whozits and whatzits galore. You want thingamabobs? They’ve got twenty! But who cares?” Because Verder and Dunbar don’t have air conditioning, the girl’s restrooms in Satterfield still have urinals, and heated bus stops would be a really nice thing during the wonderland that is an Ohio winter on campus.
Rosie’s Diner is an excellent place when you’re looking for a midnight study snack of something easy, cheap, and well not as fast as you had hoped. Stand in line to order from a touch screen computer, tear off your ticket number, and stand in front of the bar for about 20 minutes, maybe a half hour, for your chicken fingers. At least they have modern music to listen to while you wait. And there’s always Rosie’s Market right next door in case you work up a second appetite just waiting on your food.
You thought going to a public university would save you from other people’s religious fervor and constantly being told you’re going to hell in a hand basket? Think again! Walk into Risman Plaza on a sunny autumn afternoon and there they stand – men in long beards holding picket signs, hollering and preaching anti-gay this and anti-gay that. Freedom of speech. They’re allowed to be there. Then there’s the more peaceful procession of elderly men in suit coats standing on every corner and graciously handing out miniature New Testaments to each student who happens to cross their path.
Kent State has decent public transportation system through PARTA’s Campus Bus Service to ferry students across campus to classes and parking lots. They provide free travel via the Campus Loop, Front Campus/Summit East, and more, plus a minor fee for destinations such as Cleveland. You can read the bus schedule and see the map on their website, but how reliable are the buses now that the Summit Street Improvement Project is underway and will continue through 2018? With road closures and the new roundabout outside the Student Recreation and Wellness Center, getting from point A to point B takes a little more guesswork than usual. Look for updates on the project here.
Parking sucks at Kent State University. Why Kent in particular? Try being a freshman for starters. Freshman, and some other lower-classmen, have to park at Dix Stadium which requires one to ride a bus to and from campus. The cost of a parking permit, compared to some other universities, isn’t too much of a burden. But Kent is notorious among students for giving out more permits than parking spaces available – or perhaps that’s because some students like to park where they are not welcome. Parking fines? That’s the big ticket. No, seriously, parking tickets make the university a real mint. You’re already paying them thousands in tuition costs. Why pay them any more just to park a little closer to your 50-minute class?
Bottom line, Kent State University does not suck. Despite the minor list of complaints above, it is still a very successful and promising place of education.
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