Tarleton State University Problems

Seniors have a tendency of taking their last year of high school for granted. They do not realize that the relaxed classes and fun filled weekends with their best friends will all soon come to a devastating end. They have applied for college, bought miniature refrigerators, and sent in their housing applications, but none of them have really thought about college in the way that they should. When asked about college most high school seniors image the huge parties, attractive people, and freedom; however, college is much more than that and, in a way, much less. College and high school are completely different when it comes to a student’s actual lifestyle, but they have many of the same traits that most high school seniors do not see coming.

Coming to college as an adult, we have many expectations and preconceptions of what college will or will not be. The expectations we have can influence our college life for the better or the worse. My experience since starting college has been an interesting one. People have misconceptions about college because they do not know what to expect. After doing some research, I have concluded that there are three major factors that are often misunderstood about college life. The first is the financial aspect of college. Second, is the relationship between the professors and students. Third is time management. These three factors play an important role in why people are afraid to go down the path to college.

According to Lupien, McEwan, Gunnar, and Heim (2009), going off to college involves significant adjustments to their daily routines; sleeping and eating habits, time-management skills, and stress levels will be altered in one way or another. First-year students have to adjust to the new school environment, different social settings, and new schedules, all without the help and guidance from their parents, who have been there for them for eighteen years. Over 30% of college freshman report that they feel overwhelmed (Klainberg, Ewing, & Ryan, 2010), where some students even opt to work as they juggle their class and work schedules. Some students work at a job or study harder than others, but they are all trying to get degrees so maybe one day they will have meaningful and significant lives. It is a constant struggle for everyone who is trying desperately to make him or herself into a success. And every college student wants to be involved in society in a positive manner, allowing contribution of their ideals and values to others.

Being admitted into college is a difficult process, one that requires students to be diligent in their studies, engage in a number of extracurricular activities, and overcome the everyday pressures and challenges that high-schoolers face across the country. Admittedly, not everyone in the United States is born with the same opportunities as socioeconomic factors as well as historic injustices have contributed to a society in which some people are far more likely to achieve upward mobility – of which, obtaining a college degree is a necessary part – than others. While there is need to rectify this reality,

College pressures dominate our lives. They begin to levitate around us and slowly derail our lives. William Zinsser elaborates about the college pressures that modern generations are facing. He reveals multiple commonalities that the typical college student encounters on a daily basis. Zinsser states, “They want a map-right now-that they can follow unswervingly to career security, financial security, social security, and presumably, a prepaid grave” (12). He is spot on, the pressures demand my attention and won’t take no for an answer. So far I’ve gone head to head with these pressures every day since I started my freshman year in college. For the time that I’ve been here, my mind is overwhelmed and distraught with the amount of stress that gets piled on top of me every single day. I drown in these unrealistic expectations written in those faulty suggestion bars about how to be successful in college and college 101 tips. College pressures surround me like a dull gray cloud. It showers me with expectations and unfinished checklists. College itself is similar to carpooling to hell and back, but with no actual guarantee with a ride back.

The situation above is something many college students, especially those here at the University of California Riverside (UCR), are well aware of. Although there are tons of parking lots here at UCR, students still struggle to find a place to park. One of the main reasons is because of the increase in students attending across campuses all over the US. According to the National Center for Educational Statistic, “Between 2001 and 2011, enrollment increased 32 percent, from 15.9 million to 21.0 million.” As a result, the amount of parking spaces here at UCR could not compensate for the growing number of students. A lack of parking spaces can cause many detriments toward the students as it can hinder with their class schedules, cause them to either be late or miss a class, and overall affect their grades. If UCR implement a shuttle bus system for the empty parking lots that are far away from the school, students would be less stress about the parking

Waking up on time, finding your classroom, as well as showing, are just some of the stressful parts of going to Cleveland State as a commuter, let alone finding a place to park. The necessity of finding a parking spot on campus close to the correct buildings is a must if you plan on commuting. On top of paying for tuition, students are asked to pay another fee to park on campus. One would think that if the parking pass was bought, a spot would be automatically a given fact, but for some they are hard to find. The question is should every student that buys a parking pass be granted a parking spot in the designated area of their choice? I think that if you spend the money to park you should have a spot no matter what time you come on campus.

Students are forced to park in other places on campus and some choose to disregard the signs posted for reserved parking. This is a bit risky because vehicles parking in violation of university regulations may be towed and impounded. For example, a freshman living in the valleys would get an F parking permit. The only places they can legally park with this are up the hill by the dorms, by the rec. center, and on high levels of a parking structure by the Bernhard Center, which is a popular place for students to eat out at, or buy things at the school store. Each parking lot is restricted to parking for a specific type of permit. Only vehicles displaying the same type of permit may park in that lot. During fall and winter semesters, residence hall lots with the designations A, C, F, K, and Z are restricted 24 hours a day for vehicles displaying the same type of permit. Many students choose to ignore these letters and just park there anyway, taking the risk of being ticketed or possibly toed. Campus police walks around especially at night and tickets every car parked illegally or calls in for a toe truck to help out. Seven different parking lots that may seem convenient when students are looking for a spot are restricted to employee parking 24 hours per day, leaving many students frustrated,

Students will park in the front parking lot only to allow for visitor parking.  We encourage students to carpool or ride the bus because parking is extremely limited.  We will have staff members directly student parking efforts, both in the morning and at lunch.

Adam Gorlick in “ Got an hour? Boost your grades. Stanford psychologists design 60-minute exercise that raises GPAs of minority student” talks about the transition from high school to college and the difficulties many students face. In his article Adam Gorlick brings up various questions many freshman ask for example, will they fit in but also brings up the issue of being a minority in a new college campus. He later goes on to talk about how these situations during the transition to college are situations that everyone goes through.

As of 2013 there are about 2,500 parking spots currently available at the UCMerced parking lot; with the continued growth of students in the school, we need to be able to make sure supply meets demand with the parking spaces. UCMerced's student population is rapidly growing from 13.5 % from Fall of 2015 to 2016 (UCMerced). Due to the high demand the school needs to be able meet the necessary requirements for all these students; one of the biggest problems the school faces is that they aren’t able to meet the student’s transportation needs (The Merced Sun-Star). The lack of spaces causes students and staff to waste time looking for parking causing them to waste time. I plan on making a design on a mobile app to be able to solve this problem.

While this is a good thing to help bring people to the area all the while getting their education, these students aren’t exactly bringing more parking spots with them when they come to attend this school. Meaning more students every semester and less parking places as well. This can cause a variety of issues, and since we are attending this school and using this parking lot we elected to take advantage of its convenience and research the current issues that the overly full parking lot are beginning to cause for students and faculty alike.

Butler County Community College’s parking situation is appalling. Every day I have had class so far this semester I have been either late or right on time depending on how fast I power-walk through campus. The reason I am late is not that I am sleeping in too late or slowly making my way across town to get to the school. It is that I show up on time and spend at least fifteen minutes slowly driving through the parking lot looking for a relatively close parking spot. My own solution to this problem has been that now instead of looking for a spot close to the building my class is in, I just go straight to the very back parking lot and walk through the campus to the building my class is in. What I needs to happen is Butler County Community College has to add more parking, expand the campus, or invent teleportation.

When students are trying to get to class on time or even slightly early and the parking lot is full, this becomes increasingly more difficult to find a spot. To discover and verify the problems with Crounse’s parking lot, we gathered data from not only the parking lot itself, but the student and faculty body as well. From here we analyzed the data collected and developed viable solutions to the issues at Crounse Hall’s parking area.

With an increased demand for skilled labors, many students nowadays find themselves needing to complete some form of higher education at college to ensure their success in the workplace and their future career goals. Although freshmen students often enter college with high expectations and ambitions, many eventually drop out of college. Why does that happen? In an ever-changing and more competitive environment, the demanding expectations on college students now soar at unprecedented heights, creating stressful and unpleasant experiences for many of them as they try to keep up with all the burdens inflicted upon them. In their writings, Dr. Christine B. Whelan, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Alan Schwartz, and Nisha Ramachandran explore and illustrate some of the stress-creating challenges that freshmen struggle with today. Even though many factors contribute to the huge list of problems for first-year students, many of the problems that create stress for college freshmen fall under the categories of academic factors, (what adverb to add) teachers, and personal-life conflicts.