A Bobcat skid-steer loader sits in a construction site outside of McLane Hall at Fresno State, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015. (Darlene Wendels, The Collegian)
If you haven’t noticed, Fresno State is in the midst of a massive construction project slated to last another year at least. While I’m sure the construction is much needed, why is my tuition the same when I have to deal with the noisy trucks and closed off streets?
When I came to Fresno State, it was a beautiful campus. It was quiet with the exception of the occasional early-morning lawnmower. Why should I have to pay full tuition when I’m forced to endure this endless construction nightmare for benefits I will not reap?
Parts of parking lots are closed off without any signage to indicate that until it’s too late to simply change your mind about turning into the lot. Often you have to walk around a bulldozer that’s blocking the entrance to the building your class is in. The music blaring from the University Student Union is overshadowed by the constant beeping sound of beeping trucks backing up.
Those of us planning to graduate in May are simply screwed.
The university has imposed these visual and auditory distractions on us and is thanking us by continuing to charge us full price.
No number of “this is necessary construction” explanations will suffice. You’ve ensured that students will leave your campus with a bad taste in their mouths.
When I’m ready to send my kids to college, why would I send them to Fresno State? I’d prefer to send them to a college that is completed and doesn’t look like it’s constantly being rebuilt.
On the other hand, if the school shut down the parking lot next to the Henry Madden Library for a whole semester to build a parking garage, that would be acceptable.
Parking on this campus is a disaster. It’s so awesome having to park at the Save Mart Center and walk to Industrial Tech. Who needs a $16 million recreation center when you can just walk a half-mile to class?
On top of bad parking, the school has even wedged in a few traps for students to bilk even more money out of them. Out past the solar panels in lot P2, there are some random spaces that are for faculty only.
Students park in them because they had no idea that the space, which is poorly marked, could possibly be for faculty that far out. Why would you expect four random spaces to be for faculty when there are hundreds of spaces under the solar panels that go unused by faculty each and every day?
Did you pull into a parking lot that’s now difficult to get out of because of detours? Tough. Were you late to class because you had to find parking at Campus Pointe? Too bad.
Why isn’t the senior class, or everyone in general for that matter, up in arms about the year of school ruined for them?
For many of us, this is it. Why must our final trek to graduation be marred by constant work crews that make the idyllic campus look like they’re building another Campus Pointe all around us?
To which office do I register my request for partial tuition refund for enduring the blight on the campus that should have been done over the summer like it should have been?
If I wanted to take classes in a construction zone, I would have stayed at Fresno City College.