Reflecting back on the semester, as finals loom, upperclassmen may ponder how this fall at the University has stacked up against previous semesters.

A few factors are pushing Hofstra toward the “lose” column.

As veteran University students entered the Student Center in the fall, they found summer renovations to the cafeteria were disastrous. Sure, the main dining room is much nicer and more inviting, but the dining area next to Commerce Bank is a nightmare. The seats are immobile and overbright lights are planted in the middle of the tables where students should be able to place their dinner plates instead. Students need to suck in their guts to walk between certain chairs, and there is only one handicapped-accessible table. In October came the University’s “comprehensive signage program” went into effect. Tacky blue and yellow signs sprouted up in front of academic buildings and quickly became the biggest joke on campus. New signs showed up at the gates indicating to drivers if they are entering north or south campus. New campus maps (that lack the locations of emergency phones and blue lights) added to the defacement of an otherwise aesthetically pleasing campus. As pointed out by humorists of campus magazine Nonsense and Hofstra Entertainment Access Television’s “Thursday Nite Live,” the signs and maps resemble drive-thru menus. It wasn’t just students that complained, as professors couldn’t restrain themselves from voicing their dissatisfaction either. New markers to identify campus facilities were not a bad idea, but the chosen design showed poor judgment.

Also this semester, the University showed disrespect toward former students by starting to require annual donations for alumni card privileges, such as borrowing books from Axinn Library and using the Recreation Center. After giving the University tens of thousands of dollars in tuition while students, graduates deserve the right to take out a book or use a treadmill without having to pay.

The University’s proposed medical school goes into the “win” column. Since the United States is projected to have a doctor shortage, a school of medicine is the best expansion that could have been made. Not only is it good for the University’s prestige, it’s good for Long Island.

The Campus Alert Notification Network is also a great University accomplishment of the semester. In the case of an emergency, all students will receive a text message, e-mail and phone call informing them of danger and where to go to stay safe. If this doesn’t sound like much, just think of the lives that could have been saved if such a system were in place at Virginia Tech in April.

The Nov. 19 announcement by the Commission on Presidential Debates that Hofstra was chosen as the host site for the final debate of 2008 demonstrates that the University’s presidential conferences and the year-old Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency have made Hofstra synonymous with presidential studies.

And then this week, the School of Communication unveiled NewsHub, a newsroom that converges print, broadcast and online media.

With the University’s accomplishments juxtaposed against students’ disappointments, it still turns out this has been a pretty good semester for Hofstra.