Jay’Mi Vazquez – News Editor
Students at the university expressed their thoughts on a variety of topics they wish were changed at the university.
Senior Daniel Santana-Gonzalez, a history major, said that he is relatively happy, but there were a few things he would want to change at the university regarding W courses.
“I feel like you should be able to double dip in terms of your major requirements. So, I’ve taken courses that are W courses, but since they’re in my requirements, they tell me I haven’t taken any,” Gonzalez said. “The point of a W course is to show that you are capable of writing. So, If I took those W courses, it should convey that I’m beyond capable of writing.”
Freshman Giovanni Odozi, nursing major, said that he loves the university, but he wishes commuter services were improved.
“I wish there were more commuter services on campus than there are now. More food, more fun things to do on early mornings and more activities would be great,” Odozi said.
Odozi said that he feels the university prioritizes residents over the commuters on campus, which should not happen because either way we are all paying for the education we receive.
Junior Joe Youn, computer science major, said there are changes he wished would happen in the game room.
“They said they would add Apex Legends, and they never did,” Youn said. “Better computers for coders would also be nice. I feel like everything’s slow and not really capable of doing everything computer science students need.”
Sophomore Jax Joyner-Cross, history education major, said a clearer system about changing your catalog year would be helpful.
“A lot of times, students take classes that we don’t necessarily need to. If it was common knowledge that you can change your catalog year, that would make it so much easier for people,” Joyner said.
Freshman Lana Drew, art education major, said that the degree evaluation has been difficult to navigate during her first semester.
“I think the degree evaluation website should tell you what you need to take per year because otherwise it’s really, really confusing,” Drew said.
Drew said she understands that there are resources on campus that can help her, but a better system would just ease the process of scheduling appointments with advisors. She said she is worried about potentially taking the wrong course or fulfilling a requirement more than once on accident.
Junior Ana-Sophia Echeverri, healthcare studies major, said that certain major requirements were not properly explained to her, which caused her to change her major.
“I used to be a health science major. The university considered it a pre-med track; however, it does not match up with a lot of the pre-recs for med school,” Echeverri said. “While working with my advisor, it was kind of hard to meet requirements for the school and my future.”
Echeverri said that this big mishap on behalf of the university is what caused her major change. However, she is thriving in her new healthcare studies major and feels better than she did with the health science major getting messed up in translation.
President of the Student Government Association Kyle Mashia-Thaxton said that there are changes he would want from a resident and academic perspective.
“The biggest thing I would change from an academic said would be to completely overhaul Math 100p,” Thaxton said. “They’d have to change it completely; there is like a 50% fail rate.”
As a resident of North Hall, Thaxton said that some of the living conditions should be changed too in order to retain students.
“People pay a lot of money to live here, and then elevators are broken, people start to feel sick because of air and other issues. How people live in them and how they are designed I would change in a flip because I feel like that’s the main reason why we don’t retain residential students.”
