UMBC does a number of things to shoot itself in the foot with students, the individuals every university relies on the most - not only for financial support through tuition and alumni donations, but through the ever-popular buzzphrase of "viral marketing," in other words, speaking highly of UMBC to friends and family.
One of the most frustrating things for me has been UMBC's differential enforcement of school "policies." Many policies are only invoked when a problem is perceived, others seem designed to stifle student life. Compounding this predicament is the seeming inability of the university to communicate its intentions to the enforcement arm.
A stark example of this happened to me today and provided the impetus for embarking on this series of posts.
I have long contended that the perceived "parking problem" at UMBC is not the lack of parking spaces, but the lack of parking spaces that are close to the places students want to go on campus. As a commuting student this semester, I have put this into practice by heading straight for the Hilltop lot (Lot 22, I believe) when I arrive for class each morning.
Today I was in the undesirable situation of being ten minutes late for class. Pulling onto Hilltop Road at 11:10 AM, I knew there was no chance of finding a space in any of the closer lots, so I dutifully headed directly for the Hilltop lot. I was immediately confronted by a staff member, who informed me that student parking was "to the right." About a third of the lot had been cordoned off (diagonally, I might add, so at least ten spaces were lost in the caution tape) for special event parking. Naturally, the remaining space was long filled, but since the staff member did not inform arriving students of this, many were parallel parking along the sides of the caution tape. Faced with the alternative of heading to the exact opposite side of campus to park in Lot 17, I parallel parked in that area.
Of course, when I returned to my car at 9:00 PM, I had received a parking ticket for parking in an improper area (placed in a Glad bag against the drizzle for my convenience). The time on the ticket was 3:10 PM. Rather than enforcing this policy when it mattered, when students were being told they should park "to the right," the UMBC Police seem to have waited until the barriers were taken down before cruising the lot for violations.
Would it have taken that much additional effort to inform the police of what was going on, enlisting their assistance to guide parking or to exercise lenience due to the lack of available spaces? Couldn't the staff member have looked behind her to see that the spaces were empty, and told students so, rather than telling them they should park there? Could the people have at least blocked off the lot with a straight line, maximizing the number of spaces available for use? Is this a case even worth appealing, or will I be slapped with the ticket price plus an additional "processing fee" when I am told that it was MY responsibility to know that the UMBC staff member was misinformed?
For heaven's sake, UMBC. It's situations like this that make students want to curse the place that will eventually be our alma mater. You're your own worst enemy.
UMBC: Its Own Worst Enemy, Part 1
Wednesday, October 1, 2008Posted by at 9:20 PM
Labels: administration, steelwolf
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
19 comments:
I've often run into situations dealing with UMBC where one hand doesn't know what the other is doing. Regarding the parking situation: I completely agree. Most of the population living on campus with cars lives in the apartments, but the majority of student parking is located on the south end of campus near the dorms. The Walker Avenue garage, the West Hill parking lots, and the spaces on Hilltop Circle on the north end of campus are always filled on weekdays, but the parking lots across the street from Patapsco Hall are always half-empty.
There's also the issue of poorly-thought out designation of parking spaces. For example, half of the parking lot behind the site of the Hillcrest building was designated as faculty parking, which once made sense because UMBC faculty used to work in Hillcrest when it was used by ResLife and other campus organizations. Hillcrest was vacated eight years ago and demolished last summer, but it took until this semester for UMBC to open the faculty section of the Hillcrest lot to student parking. When the parking lot was still marked off for faculty, it was always full of empty spaces due to being ten minutes' walk away from anywhere faculty would have reason to be. This should have been changed to student parking in 2000, as soon as faculty no longer had a legitimate reason to park in the midst of the West Hill apartments, but instead, the lot remained designated for faculty for years after it was no longer practical for faculty to park there.
Situations like this bring UMBC's indifference regarding student parking to a head. Inefficient designation and placement of parking spaces continues to plague UMBC students, both residents and commuters, but nobody in charge seems to notice or care. It's very curious that UMBC can gladly write off $23 million for the Commons, but can't afford to put parking spaces where they're needed...
In UMBC's defense, today's parking crunch in that lot probably had something to do with the Career Fair this afternoon.
On the other hand, UMBC's Wikipedia entry notes that one or two of the parking lots are slated to be torn out and replaced with a new building.
So I'm not sure where I stand on this, actually. This is a good school, but it's starting to transition from being a commuter school to a more residential one, and therefore attention is going to start being paid to the problems of residents more than commuters (for all that commuters likely outnumber the residents)...
If you can ever manage it, take the bus or carpool. It's much, much easier to park when you don't bring your car with you.
@SS:
The interesting thing about the Commons is that it was actually built primarily with student fee money - the SGA was required to budget payments on the cost for years after its construction.
Even now, students pay for the continued operation of the building.
@anon:
I agree, the problem was almost definitely related to the career fair. People who parked in that lot were being bussed down to the RAC - so why couldn't they have used one of the lots that's even further away from where students need to go. The one across the street from Lot 17, for example.
With something as big as Career Fair, you'd think the staff behind it would take the time to plan out an effective solution with others like the UMBC Police, rather than letting the students find out "the hard way."
@Anonymous
The thing is, parking is not exclusively, or even primarily, a commuter problem. Many resident students have cars. Those of us with cars are more likely to be upperclassmen and therefore more likely to live in the apartments along Walker Avenue. Despite this fact, the majority of parking spaces on campus seem to be located on the opposite end along Poplar Avenue, the place where it is least needed. This is the problem - student parking near the dorms is always underutilized, while finding parking near the apartments can get very competitive and time-consuming. This is as much of a resident problem as a commuter problem, if not more.
Good news, they are removing the faculty parking to build a THEATRE ARTS building. HOORAY. the one thing i always complained about was not having enough programs that dont bring any revenue back to the school.
What is that Mr.overpaid president of UMBC, the Ravens want to pay us to build a training facility here. And you said hell no.
God i love this school. Its like all the decision are made based upon coin flips.
Lets give away more scholarships to 30 year old russians to play chess. So that i can pay more to take classes from teachers who cant speak or comprhened english like Alpha Kaikai.
UMBC is trash and i swear to god if i had fewer credits i would transfer. I will never admit where i went to college to anyone.
Just a note... Fine Arts building was built in the 60's. The elevators are constantly breaking down and it smells like mold.
While I don't agree with losing parking lots/space, I do agree with having a new fine arts building... UMBC isn't 100% a science school.... Fine Arts students need a place to learn that isn't a fire hazard =p
I agree that parking is a problem for on campus residents too. I think a way to alleviate all of this is by not allowing sophomores park on campus. It was fine when UMBC had fewer students, but now it's brutal trying to find parking on a Sunday evening!!
fuk umbc
i used to live in west hill apartments last semester, and commute this semester, and i must say that the pain of parking is the same.
there is barely any parking near west hill apartments at night! the lot parking lot behind the library has 3 sections, 1 for student, 1 for visitors and 1 for the walker's residents.
they i think it would help to let the students park at the visitors section because through out the last semester, i never saw more than 10 cars parked there at the same time, except when they had some event! it would help if they not enforce the meters there unless there are events.
parking at the campus sucks.
I sooooo agree. It seems like UMBC, half the time, is either shooting itself in the foot, or just directly torturing the students, the spaces have been the least of my worries here over the last 6 years (which, btw, is the school average for a 4yr. degree based UMBC's own recent findings--this seems to me to be due to a lot of GFR requirments, some that we really don't need, but I'll get to that later if I have time for it).
For one thing, until recently (like say the past year or two), most of the food services staff in the Commons have been downright enfuriating. I, unlike most it seems, had no problem with the food but the repeated stupidty and rudeness of the staff never ceased to surprise me. The example that immediately comes to mind is Pete's Arena. One day--after having ordered basically the same thing from the same person there for months--I tried to stop him from putting sauce on my 3-cheese calzone (which they did automatically, and when you told them "no sauce" ahead of time they heard it as "I want sauce" so you always had to say "no, no I said *no* sauce" directly afterward anyway) only to find out that no matter what you said sometimes it just didn't matter. So after the typical repeat of no sauce, I see him turn around and reach for the sauce ladel anyway, well, my voice can be low sometimes, and I, over past sevral months was tired of this guy always fuking-up [spelled wo/ the "c" in case they use an auto-censor here] (which he always did) so I lost it, at that point I literally screamed at the top of my lungs "I SAID NO SAUCE" and this brain dead guy with dreads just walked back over, having (for the love of whatever divinity I don't know how)still not heard me, and handed me the calzone as if nothing had happened. I looked behind me and sure enough, everyone else in line was looking at me like I was the next Ted Bundy, so I know I didn't imagine my voice to be louder than I thought. At this point in my anger, I knew I was faced with only two options: 1) jump over the counter and strangle something, and 2) accept the calzone as if nothing were wrong. I chose 2. Afterward I simply walked to the trash can right in front of the counter and slammed the calzone into the trash with a flourish, just so maybe they'd get the idea they had screwed up, but I still think it somehow didn't register.
I've had similar run-in's with stupidity at all the other locales as well, save for Jazzman's at the commons and Subversions, the people there are golden.
Then there were the several months where I had the cleaning staff of the commons talk smack about me outside of the restroom when they thought I couldn't hear them, all because I was apparently in their way in the morning when they normally cleaned the restrooms (and couldn't go into the mens w/ me there bc/ I'm a guy). Well excuse me for living ladies, but when you're on tempoary antibiotics which you're trying out to treat acne, that turn out to be hard on your stomach, and still have the gaul to do that to people, THEN you can come bitch at me behind that not-so-thick wooden door, till then, STFU, I was kind in not reporting them to their superiors, but next time, I won't be, especially considering the last time they knew I was at the sink and had just said something to me directly, so they almost HAD to know I could hear them as clear as day (unless these particular 2--and only those 2, let me be clear--are brain-dead, which is a distinct possibility). I just walked outside, and would've said something, but I was so mad it would've just come out as a long stream of cursing, so I glared at them both and walked away, only to hear as I am, "what's his problem".
Then though, there are the real issues, the ones dealing with adminastrative policies. Those are the ones that really make UMBC it's own worst enemy, and I've had to many of those to even remember at once, so I'm not even going to try (and fortunately it looks like everyone else on here already did most of it for me). But I will go over a couple: 1) Many still seem not to know this, but UMBC since its founding, was intended to be a fine arts school, NOT Sci-tech (nothing wrong with sci-tech but I'm going somewhere with this). Unfortunately, President Hrabowski seems to be among these many. He's done wonderful things for the university, but to do it he has squarely stabbed the fine arts here in the back. We're stuck in a molding old building (which we can't formally report bc/ we're all afraid it will be closed down and we will then be on the sidewalk) with much less funding and programs, which aren't emphasized nearly as much even when they're students do great things academically. On top of this, Hrabowski has been caught twice in front of investors calling the building "the Fine Arts Ghetto". I'm sure that must have done wonders for the potential incoming money for the programs... They've only agreed to build a new building now after there new student numbers dropped, not because of anything we said befre hand... Also, the religious studies dept had all funding removed, and you can't even major in it anymore even though it survives with help from History profesors, and they aren't even able to teach the RLST 100 anymore!!! Funding was also nearly cut to ancient studies several years back as well! WTF!
Lastly, a friend of mine who finally got confirmation recently that she has a math-related learning disability, and was told this should get her to be exempt from taking Math 100, was just told by the *same person* later than it wasn't enough.
The bottom line is this: I still, somehow love this university, mainly because the teaching faculty here are very good, and really care about what they're doing, and how they can help students, I've met many I'll remember forever, (and the few requisite nut jobs as well (but really every college has a few). But the majority of the administrative (departmental and clerical) professionals that interface with students as per their job requirments, need to be cleared out and replaced, they care much too little about students (and therefore can't effectively bridge the gap between UMBC and its students) and see only the university's side, even when there is cause to do more than that.
I remember laughing when they announced the "Improve it" Make UMBC Better, and have a $5,000 grant for the best idea thing, because I knew no one would listen to what it really takes to improve UMBC in the most painfully needed way: cut the administrative bullshit that goes on here daily screwing students over unfairly every time we turn around.
The parking here is horrible to say the least. When I first started at here I found parking to be better than the parking situation at the commuinty college I attended. Needless to say it has grown worse each semester since. I too was frustrated with the parking situation on Wednesday though I knew what it was for. Parking in lot 17 really sucks when you have to walk to the fine arts building for class. And as far as GFR's are concerned they are the worst part of UMBC's curriculum. I ended up taking math 100 twice (hate math) and failed both times. Two semesters later I find that the school accepted my math credit from comm. coll. and that I no longer needed math. Funny they told me when I transferred that I needed that class that my credit was not equal to their standards. Thanks UMBC for wasting my time, money and my GPA. I won't even talk about the fine arts building. Why is it every school that I go to has to allow the art building/hallways decay while they pump money into their other programs? Just one more hurdle us art students must overcome. I actually wish I hadn't gotten into the program here so I could have went to a school that actually cared about their students.
Couldn't agree more as per the BS with the credits and GPA, UMBC does the whole, "whoops, we'll accept it afterall" sometimes, usually if you go directly to someone in the department (usually the dept. head) that your contested credit applies to after you get the initial NO elsewhere they can help you out and maybe get UMBC to accept it, but it's still not a formal duty or administrative ability of their's, so you have to be nice of course (and why not, the academic faculty usually have nothing to do with decision over what is from the get-go not accepted) and explain your situation.
UMBC usually accepts a lot of Comm college credits (esp. from AACC nearby) but still, sometimes for the foundational credits they can be dicks and you just have to know who to talk to.
A good friend of mine just had the same problems with some of his and I had to help him with who to go to about it...
I agree with all that's been said, but there are some specific issues that haven't been brought up.
1: UMBC's judiciary department is wrapped up in its own inefficient bureaucracy. I've dealt with them and heard the stories of others who have, and in every story the student gets screwed by lateness and inconsistencies on the part of administration faculty, and nonchalant handling of the case. Fix it, please. You can't expect us to obey your very detailed rules completely unless you yourself have it together. My involvement in a case (copyright) led to my registration being locked and not getting any of my req'd courses (hey! I'll be at UMBC even longer, yes). And I dealt with a flippant, uninformed grad student who handled my case.
2: The Language Program. I've taken four semesters of French at UMBC and only in this current semester have I been satisfied with the professor or class. In every prior semester, I've had teachers who haven't been completely fluent in English and therefore weren't able to fully communicate with the students. Only this semester have I had a great professor, and he is GREAT, let me tell you, and he himself has mentioned discrepancies in the UMBC language program. The average language course offers 4 credits, which ought to translate to 4 hours of classtime per week. We average two, with a biweekly "C-Hour" session tacked on. This is insufficient to learn a language, it is a rip-off, and a trick. We're paying for four credits, and we deserve that time with the professor. C-Hour is useless and not helpful.
Also, last semester I took the biology course with Sokolove (biggest mistake). I signed up, attended every class and discussion, studied the book incessantly, and generally kept up. On our first exam, I got something like a 50%, where the class average was 55%. I was sent an email by a discussion TA (a mass email that all students of the class recieved) that informed us that if we had recieved less than a 55, we should STRONGLY CONSIDER dropping the class. While he didn't explicitly order us to, he did phrase it exactly like that. I freaked out and dropped it. I regretted it afterward, and a friend who had stayed in said that following the email half of the three-hundred person class had dropped and wasn't present at lecture. While I don't hate Sokolove and he is actually quite good at what he does, I believe this was a mismanagement of his students and just a really shitty thing to do. I paid for that class, and I had to get a W.
Wow, I am amazed that no one has brought up the unimaginable amount of red tape student org.'s have to go through to get anything done around this campus. I am exhausted just thinking about what a hassle it was when I was involved in a student org last year. From the SGA's Finance Board to the Business Services, they made being involved with a student org. a truly miserable business.
Why bother promoting student groups if you are going to stifle them at every turn??
I still love going to UMBC, but that is only because of the wonderful friends I have met. UMBC really does shoot itself in the foot.
The parking situation at UMBC is out of control. A few semesters ago I had a handicap sticker because I had broken my foot. Of course it was during the winter and we had an ice storm and UMBC hadn't properly salted all of its sidewalks and parking lots however the school remained open. Upon parking in a marked handicap spot I opened my door to get out and nearly fell on my ass because the HANDICAP spots had not been salted yet. Get it together.
You can fine hundreds of examples of UMBC making decisions, rules, and taking actions that lack all common sense. Steelwolf's parking ticket is a perfect example. There are many professors and some (not many) administrators and staff that do seem to care about stupids, but the many administrators and few faculty that don't give a shit ruin the whole experience.
For a campus that is so damn image conscience, the best form of marketing is word of mouth and when your own students have so many negative things to say about your school, your reputation goes down. This is why people in Maryland think less of UMBC than those outside the state, because they don't have access to word of mouth and only see the bullshit that UMBC calls its advertisements. I drove in on hilltop road a few days ago and say that we were a "Top 5" school.
Sorry UMBC but that's false advertising. We're a top "UP AND COMING" school. We aren't even on the damn last if top 150. If you continue to bullshit students and make people think UMBC is something it isn't, you are going to keep seeing students immensely dissatisfied with the product. And even for the students that do know what they're getting when they come to UMBC, you shoot them in the foot and make them hate you as well.
I truly cannot wait til I graduate so I never have to step foot on deal with any of this bullcrap again besides having to pay $8 the rest of my life when I need a transcript and telling people on the phone to stop calling me asking for money.
My use of the word "stupids" in the first paragraph should be "students". I was simply thinking of ways to describe the few faculty and many administrators that don't give a shit about students.
@steelewolf
yes the commons was built with some student fee money, and is run with SOME student money, much of the operation of the building is actually paid for with tuition ,the chartwells contract,and money from the back. This is why there is heated debate over wheather the commons is a student union, and why there is a faculty lounge on the 3rd floor.
Post a Comment