You can’t find a parking space, the CS 151 on your transcript now is worthless, you can’t live off campus, are stuck in your temperature-instable dorm room and now you have to make two trips in the cafeteria line because they took your tray away.
It seems that the Baker grapevine has gone sour. We all have frustrations with Baker and there always will be things we want to change, things that should change.
But I’d like to remind everyone that there are ripe grapes on the vine.
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I am reminded of this as I spend one hour at Ottawa University taking a class I need to graduate.
In preparation for my upcoming presentation, I looked around the room to get a sense of what I had to work with: a dry-erase board (that may or may not have working markers) and an old, scuffed table.
At Baker, giving PowerPoint presentations has become standard – I never considered the technology they required.
The library has computers connected to databases and programs, shelves upon shelves of books and now even a Mac lab that make that 401 paper less daunting.
When I used the University of Kansas’ library, I was shocked at how much I missed ours. While KU’s library is larger, it is full, confusing, cold and doesn’t have some of the databases I’m used to using at Baker.
The resources Baker supplies are very valuable (though I took them for granted), but they would be useless without professors and the administration.
OK, so BU Weekend may sell some false perceptions about Baker, everything is played up. But the pitch about accessible and supportive professors is true.
At Baker, you really never are just a number. Professors are just an e-mail, phone call or a building away, willing to coach us through until we walk across that stage in May.
As I near that beautiful graduation date, I am impressed at how concerned and helpful professors and past professors have been. I do not feel as though Baker is shoving me my diploma, dumping me in the real world unprepared. The university genuinely takes an interest in us and goes above and beyond to help us attain our success.
So maybe we won’t hold hands and skip around campus alongside the squirrels anytime soon. Baker isn’t some fairy-dream campus. Like any entity, we have conflicts. But something is going right if we’re still here.
It’s good to voice your opinion and try to improve campus. We should.
But don’t forget that not all of Baker’s grapevine is sour.