By Billy Finnegan, Columnist
Having just finished my first month in my freshman year here at Hofstra, I can say I made a pretty good choice for my college education. The University offers a lot for its undergrads—personally, I’m taking seventeen credits, I’ve gone to meetings of and participated in more than half a dozen clubs, started doing work for the Student Government Association (SGA), almost never find myself going hungry, and so on.
I never find myself truly disappointed with the school and campus, with its myriad of clubs. It’s even a relatively easy process to get your own club started with SGA—you find people who would join and make sure there’s no other club like it on campus, there’s a good chance it’ll be made. There’s really very little to complain about.
That being said, like just about anything in life, there are a few things that I’ve noticed that I wouldn’t mind changed. Nothing major, but a few points that would make The University experience better than it already is. For example, the number of printer credits. Four hundred may seem like a lot, especially considering that getting it double-sided is a non-issue, but I beg to differ. As a creative writing major, two weeks ago I had to print roughly twenty copies of an eleven page short story. That’s over two hundred pages—bye-bye printer credits! I’m sure my major isn’t the only one that’s environmentally unfriendly, either.
Admittedly, I don’t know the average number of printer credits offered across the nation, and I’m sure we’ve fared better than a number of people, but I’ve heard of universities (with lower tuitions that ours) with 800 printer credits per student, double-sided. I’m not suggesting we make that jump instantly, but tuition is over $30,000 here. I think some additional printer credits are more than fair for the student body.
Something else that could be improved on: the library could have longer hours. As I have suggested above, I have a packed schedule. Sometimes, my only chance to do work is later at night, and having the library open as a resource later in the night would be a blessing to me personally and an improvement to campus life in general.
As I’ve said, I never find myself going hungry on campus. There is always something open, even if it’s only Dutch Treats (which, for the record, has a fantastic deli). However, there is one thing I would love to see changed in my next four years here. In my humble opinions—and I’ve had a number of people agree with me—the best food on campus can be found at Bits and Bytes, inside Memorial Hall, on the academic side of campus. That it’s on the academic side causes a problem—Bits and Bytes has painfully limited hours, because very few people are on that side of campus after class gets out. I would, without a doubt, journey over to Bits and Bytes after classes for food later on in the night. If Bits and Bytes had better hours, the campus eating life would be better, and after all, food is humanity’s great unifier—we all want good food.
Having been here such a short time and only having those small issues is impressive on The University’s part. I’m known to be high maintenance and nit-picky, and I am generally beyond happy with the condition of The University. But why settle for great when our campus can still be better?