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This sucks!
First off, a $40 parking permit buys Riverside City College students a parking space somewhere on Ramona Avenue. Second, a six dollar overpriced wet burrito at the City Café collapses in your hand as you bite into it. Third, textbooks lay RCC students’ bank accounts to rest, leaving everyone broke for the next 13 weeks. Although students may not be able to do much about these particular issues, there is an issue students can try to immediately rectify.
As the fourth week of spring semester wraps up, there is still a line, but it’s not at the admissions or financial aide building. The reading and writing center, although they have 110 seats available, has a line that is wrapping around the building.
As frustrating as parking and even trying to add a class may be this is an issue that can be eliminated. It seems as though the solution could be simple common courtesy.
With not too much discussion about expansion and the current financial state of California, we are in need of an immediate simple solution. Could the problem be simply system overload? There are seats available for all students yet you could be standing in line from two to four hours if you come at the wrong time.
“Each student is expected to have 72 minutes of lab time each week and what seems to be happening is students are camping out on the computers and if four students did an extra 20 minutes than that is an hour and 20 minutes lengthened in line,” instructional support specialist James Seals said. “It’s kind of like a snake that eats its own tail, students stand in line for so long and when they finally get on a computer they want to stay there while everyone else continues waiting.”
Amanda Arroway / Staff Photographer
The fact is students who stay logged in five to six hours deprive other students the opportunity to obtain their weekly 72 minutes. The English and technology departments have met and will implement a new system that will be set up more like a classroom. This will not go into effect until the summer however.
“I wish it was a little more efficient and less frustrating but there are some days that are easy and I only spent 20 minutes in line and some that are hard, I try to do my best and deal with it.” RCC student Jennifer Gift, said.
“The big thing to help the line is sticking to your weekly 72 minutes,” Seals said. “Don’t come in until next week. The center is not built for that.”
The reading and writing lab has hired more staff and lengthened their hours.
Currently there are 110 students fighting for access at random hours, as opposed to individual students having set lab hours.
“Getting people access to the lab is our goal, we believe in the lab and it works,” Seals said.
With slight confusion and students not being on one accord it’s no wonder things are so hectic outside of the writing lab.
With the police being called for students fighting for cutting in line it seems as though this problem can easily be resolved if at least for the time being.
The college uses census to see who is signing into the writing lab so it’s important for students to continue going to the lab, so the college does not lose funds but we should all work smarter not harder since we all have the same common goal education.
So, instead of camping out on the computers, if we all agreed to do our weekly 72 minutes opposed to cramming as many hours as possible to meet the 18 hour requirement at once, this line would cease immediately. The way we like to think of it is “Team work makes the dream work.”
who wrote this?