By Steven Baker
As the semester comes to a close, I figured I’d join the party here in the op-ed section and offer my opinions of the University as a transfer student. Now before the students turn the page in apathy and the administration goes back to counting its money, I’ll give you a heads up: There are some nice things here! But don’t worry, I won’t get carried away. Since I mentioned it already, let’s talk about money. Based on what my portal tells me, it is estimated that it costs me $44,000 a year to attend the University, and yes, I think that is ridiculous. To begin with, I (and I assume many transfer students) don’t get any financial aid from this school, so I must admit my endless anger with the financial aid office. I did apply to the University during my senior year of high school, and got a $20,000 a year scholarship, but little did I know that my choice to attend The University of the Arts in the fall semester and not Hofstra would cause the financial aid office to think me as less worthy. It would be great if the University would take a little more care of their transfer students financially, as we do contribute quite a lot to the community here. I am hard-pressed to find logical reasons to deny us any sort of aid, especially for those of us with three siblings in college paying for everything on our own (my bank account weeps for me). To the Office of Financial Aid, if you’re not going to offer us money right off the bat, couldn’t you at least have some sort of re-evaluation process, and if one already exists, could you publicize it better? The University hides the process you go through for money like a troll hides its treasure.
So some of you are probably already saying “Why don’t you just transfer somewhere cheaper?” This leads me into something the administration will enjoy. In my limited experience, the University has done a pretty good job with much of its teaching staff. This school certainly boasts a better Music Education/Jazz Guitar faculty than many of the schools in my native Philadelphia region. Just as well, the art department faculty I interact with at my federal work-study job certainly seem to know their stuff. While I’m sure there is the occasional less-than-adequate professor out there, by and large, we’re not doing so badly.
Returning to the negatives, as has been stated in previous articles, Public Safety here really needs to step itself up. I will often go whole days and not see a single Public Safety officer. My former university was located in the center of Philadelphia, and I felt safer there than many of the times I walk from Netherlands South to Dutch Treats late at night. Public Safety’s presence at the University is almost embarrassing, especially considering the rather unsavory areas surrounding the campus. With the upcoming publicity the school will be receiving with the presidential debate, what will happen to all of us lowly students when the entire Public Safety staff is occupied keeping watch over the press? I know I don’t want to be beholden to the whims of stupidly drunk frat boys tromping around campus looking for a fight, granted with the minimal security presence now I am already constantly wary of this situation.
Since I probably reached the point of “long-windedness” about two paragraphs ago I’ll finish this up, and on a positive note. I don’t know about you, but I know I’ve got a soft spot for a pretty campus. While we’re not quite equal to my sibling’s Colorado State (who can fight with mountains?), I’ll give facilities points for the well-maintained academic side of campus. The ability to leave an ear training class in Monroe Lecture Hall, walk over to Mason Hall and relax and check out the trees, flowers and other botanical happenings is certainly a plus here at the University. If any of you have ever gone to school in a city, or lived in one (or both), you too can probably appreciate the fact that after four weeks, you start to miss plants and grass. There must be some sort of health benefit caused by falling asleep in a field in the sun, or at least let’s hope so, otherwise I need a new excuse to be lazy between classes.
Summing things up, it’s not all bad here at the University. I know I left out the rotten state of Lackmann, and the seemingly aloof nature of the administration, but we already all know about that, and there are lots of nice little things here to take in. The fact that we get free newspapers here makes a Hunter Thompson-esque politics junkie like me ecstatic. And if you take the time to look, you’ll find there are many great things to do on campus and in the area. After one semester, I’d give the University a seven out of ten, and if they got a ferris-wheel or something outside of Memorial Hall, I’d consider bumping it up to an eight.
Steven Baker is a freshman music education student. You may e-mail him at [email protected].