So there has been a lot of talk on campus about parking issues and how there isn’t adequate parking for commuters. As being a commuter myself, I agree. We get the option to park on the outskirts of campus, if you will and it is our only option until 3 p.m.
The parking fee is not an issue, $118.80 is a decent price compared to other SUNY school parking fees AND freshmen are allowed to have cars. This fee goes toward the officer’s salary so it’s not like it is a useless and overpriced fee.
The real issue here is space and where the spaces are located. Yes, faculty should have designated parking spaces and lots specifically for them. However, as far as students, I feel as though all lots should be fair game: commuter and resident. We are all paying the same price for the parking fee so we should all get a fair chance at parking spaces and shouldn’t be penalized for parking in a resident lot. Most of the students who do live on campus don’t use their cars on a daily basis anyway; they just sit there taking up space. Yes, some students do use their cars daily but others don’t and in most parking lots, a lot of spaces are still open and are open the whole year and commuters still get punished for parking there, with a $20 ticket.
One way to help alleviate this problem would be allowing only sophomore, juniors and seniors the option to have cars on campus. That way it opens up some of the resident lots and that open space could be used for commuter students.
This is my first year as a commuter but I know that the winter is going to be a long walk from the commuter lot to classes. We are on lake Ontario so it’s obvious that there are going to be strong winds and a lot of lake effect snow.
Okay, just kidding the snow doesn’t get this bad. But we do get a lot.
There just has to be some solution to this issue or parking. It’s not fair to exclude commuters just because they don’t live on campus.
**This blog is purely opinion and is not meant to degrade SUNY Oswego in anyway shape or form. Every college campus has their issues. I am only expressing my opinion**
About Lizz
Email: wetherby@oswego.edu
Posts by Lizz
Meet and greet with president …
Meet and greet with president stanley and other professional staff! How exciting!
Admissions open house on monda…
Admissions open house on monday 🙂 hope to see you there!
Voter registartion this week! …
Voter registartion this week! Make sue you sign up in campus center.. Every vote makes a difference… Let’s get 1,000 more!
Are opinions true, false right…
Are opinions true, false right or wrong? Philosophy has got me all confused…
What was I thinking?
I’d like to say that I’m what some call a ‘go getter’. I thrive to be busy and always have something to do. I’m really involved on campus in clubs, SA, orientation and varsity athletics. However, I decided, for some unknown reason, to take 21 credits, on top of my job at Maurices, a women’s clothing store.
I really want to graduate on time. But the more I think about it and the farther into the semester it gets, the more I’m rethinking my decision and the less it matters at so what time I graduate. The economy isn’t going to magically resolve itself by 2011.
There’s not much more I can do about this. I’m kind of stuck. But, I just keep telling myself that I can do this and there is always help when I need it. Whether it be help writing a paper, getting a tutor, or just moral support from friends or faculty, it’s always there. After every week, I just remind myself it’s one week down:)
But come final time, I’m really going to need moral support from friends and faculty and buckle down on studying! Take this as a lesson learned from me, even if you think you can do everything in the world, there’s just not enough of you to go around!
Take on a few things and put your everything into them. (great advice I learned through an LOC line during orientation). You’ll be much more satisfied that just dipping your toes into everything and not really being completely involved.
So now, it’s time for me to get studying for my COM 100 exam tomorrow, finish a module in my online economics class, right a review of a research paper, read three chapters for English and study Italian vocabulary… it’s going to be an all night! Phew… I can do this!
Cell phone used linked to tumors
I was searching the swine flu and tracking it in the U.S on CNN.com when I came across an article about cell phone use linked to tumors. This caught my eye.
The radiation that cell phones, especially blackberrys and iPhones, give off are extremely harmful. Regardless, research has been conducted on people who have had tumors in the brain or salivary glands and have been using cell phones for 10 plus years, it still poses a problem in today’s society.
A friend of mine works in sales at a Verizon Wireless store in upstate New York, while another friend works at Sprint in the capital region of Albany. I have heard multiple stories from them of how they have sold phones to parents for their children as young as six! Six years old! Can you believe this?! First of all, a child’s brain and scull are not full developed which allows easy transmission of radiation from cell phone usage. Just as it is easier for a child as young as six to catch a cold because they are sensitive to these things. Now very few parents are getting their children the simplistic phones, they are purchasing the high-tech phones such as the Env3 touch, LG voyager and even the iPhone from Apple that have high radiation transmission.
According to research by CTIA in 2005, wireless usage has sky rocketed. Over 65 percent of U.S house holds use a wire less cell phone and 6 percent of households are completely wireless. 675 billion minutes were used during the first three months of 2005. Now, that was four years ago. Think of the technology that has been produced and consumed in the last four years.
This is going to greatly effect the U.S and the world if cell phone usage continues. Soon enough all house holds will completely wireless. Children as young as two years old will be exposed to cell phones when they talk to their grandparents who are across the country.
This is an epidemic. Something needs to be done, but what can be done? Americans have become so dependent on technology that we would lose our heads if we didn’t have our cell phones in our hands at every minute.
So, since it won’t be possible to pry cell phones out of the lives of Americans, here are some tips to lower your contact with cell phone emissions from the EMF:
1. Limit calls/keep them short.
2. Only allow children to use cell phones for emergencies.
3. Wear airtube headset.
4. Don’t put cell phone on belt or in pocket while it is on.
5. Wait for call to connect before placing it near your ear
6. Limit use inside metal areas such as cars or elevators.
7. Make a call when service bar is two or more.
8. Purchase a phone with low SAR.
9. Use a scientifically validated EMF phone
10. Take nutritional supplements.
I will continue to do more research on this topic and post more later. For now, visit these links:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/14/cell-phone-cancer-link-inconclusive-but-experts-advise-caution/?iref=werecommend
http://www.emf-health.com/articles-10tips.htm
http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phone-radiation-levels/
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6602_7-5020356-1.html
Sweet Summertime
I’ve moved into my apartment in Oswego! It’s the cutest little apartment, just right for me, myself and I. I’ve spent the last week decorating (buying some things I probably didn’t really need) but I purchased all the necessities. I have an extra bedroom that I turned into ‘my office’. When I’m in there… I’m doing business as my mom would say. I’m not allowed to have pets which kind of makes me sad because I LOVE animals but the more I think about it, I won’t be home that much. It wouldn’t be fair to them to be alone most of the time. Some things have gone wrong, the refrigerator blew up at me when I was cleaning it last week, sparks flew, very scary! But my landlord is taking care of it. The light bulb blew, that was all. The shower is either scolding hot, or freezing cold. But if I play with the nozzle the temperature adjusts to just right. It wouldn’t be a new apartment if something didn’t go wrong, right?!
I still can’t believe that I’m living on my own, paying bills, cooking my own meals and everything else that comes along with living alone. I spent two years on campus. I met so many great people in the residence halls I lived in. Now that my class load is getting a little bit tougher and I’m taking two extra classes which puts me at an overload, I just need my own space. Sharing a room with someone I didn’t know was a great experience I learned a lot about myself but it does get tough sometimes.
Another reason I moved off campus is because I’m looking at grad schools out-of-state and I figured I need to learn how to cook and manage money and things of that nature by myself; where mom isn’t going to be there to cover my butt quite as easily.
It’s been a great experience so far. I never really saw the beauty of Oswego in the summer because I’ve been busy with orientation the past two years. It’s nice being able to go to the farmers market and just sit out at the lake and relax, go running, visit some little shops and other things. It’s been great.
Human Communication. What has it turned into?
As you may or may not know, I am an orientation leader. We do a skit called Life on Campus that describes issues that happen on college campuses, some scenes are specific to Oswego State.
It hit me the other day that at least four of the scenes deal with technology; specifically cell phones, how rude people are becoming because of it and the distractions it causes in everyday life. I guess I knew it subconsciously but never really thought about it, if you will.
I actually sat down at the mall last night, I was by myself, for about three hours just observing the people. There was not one person who did not have a cell phone on them. The sad part is, every single person I saw was with someone else while they were on their own phone. Is it so hard to communicate with the people we are with? Face to face communication? Is the company of the people are with not good enough that we have to resort to texting and calling other people? If this is the case, why doesn’t everyone just sit at home on their cell phone or instant messenger and have multiple conversations at once and not have to worry about being rude, if they even think about that. I just can’t believe how much this really happens.
I remember back in the day, in elementary and middle school where I would pass notes or talk in class and get in trouble for verbally speaking. Today, children starting as young as age 5 have cell phones and are texting their friends in class. It is absolutely ridiculous that we are so reliant on technology to speak to one another. What would happen to the world if the cell phone towers suddenly had a disconnection and cellphones stopped working? It would be a mad rush and people would probably start hyperventilating because they don’t have their phone and might miss an important text or a phone call. I may be a little biased on saying all this all. But I challenge you, for one day. Don’t use your cell phone. Don’t take it to work, don’t take it to class and see how you feel at the end of the day. I mean seriously, what did we all do before we had cell phones? We survived. We actually had to speak to people face to face and we got to see reactions on faces rather than a smiley face on a screen. So I challenge you all, feel free to let me know what you think or how it worked out for you if you’re brave enough to not use a cell phone for a day.
It’s it ironic where the time goes…
So, I moved back to Oswego June 14 to begin working on orientation for first-year and transfer students! Things are going GREAT so far! The team is connecting really well and we starting learning LOC, Life On Campus, today and it is going to be amazing. I can’t believe that it’s been 4 days already. I feel like I was just moving all my stuff in to Johnson, where I’ll be living until August 1.
It’s funny how fast time flies when you’re having fun. It’s scary more than anything though. Take college for instance, I remember moving in my first day, August 26, 2007. I remember what I was wearing, the first people I met and meeting my roommate for the first time. Now, I’m going to be a junior! Where has the time gone?! It’s so important to make the most of your college years, in the right way. Make friends, join organizations, get outside of your comfort zone and push yourself to see just how far you can go. You’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish with a little bit of uncertainty and unfamiliarity.
Becoming a college student is invigorating and such an honor. Take it for everything it is and don’t waste the time away. I’ve seen too many people flunk out because of poor decisions and here for all the wrong reasons. Staying on top of your grades doesn’t necessarily mean being in the library every free minute you have or hitting the books, it’s about making smart choices, getting to know professors and where to go for help.
Have fun and enjoy the years, because soon enough you’ll be walking across the stage in cap and gown shaking your head, saying to yourself, where has the time gone?