taking action

For Salt Lake Community College to be able to fix the frustrating problem of having the portable class rooms located where they are, they need to know that it is a problem. The first step would be to let them know that students are inconvenienced by its location and that they would like to have them moved or to find some solution to their awkward positioning.  The school might be able to reorganize class schedules and fit the classes that are out at the portables right now into real buildings if they found that to be the easiest solution, but if we were to suggest that they relocate the portables to the parking lot and build a parking structure to fix the parking situation also, they might find that to be the most efficient way to solve the problems students are having, hitting two birds with one stone.  The suggestion would be to invest in this structure using the tuition money that would be spent by students who decided to stay at SLCC because they were able to actually attend their classes instead of having to find a parking spot or run across the street to make it to their classes.  By contacting the school administration and making these suggestions we would be letting them understand that these difficulties do exist and that something should be done about them.

key elements and course of action

Salt Lake Community College's portable classrooms are enough out of the way that they cause students attending these classes problems when they could potentially be saved from the hassles. When students sign up for classes, they assume that the school has set up the rooms so that they are able to be easily attended. This is not the case with the portable classrooms.  The portable classrooms cause students to have a hard time getting to their classes because of the awkward placement of these portables, discouraging students from making it to their classes when they should be encouraging attendance.  The walk to and from the portables to the main campus, depending on the length of the class, can account for half of the class itself.  The parking situation is enough of an ordeal itself, but on top of having to finding an extra parking spot for having driven to the portables, students have to take two left turns across two busy streets.  

Parking at Salt Lake Community College's Redwood Campus is enough of a problem as is, so initially, it would not seem to make sense to move the portables to the main campus areas parking lots.  But if SLCC were to take the money that they would be making by ensuring students stay at their school because of their easy, pleasant experiences at the campus to build a parking structure, it would be making the most of the limited space that SLCC has. By doing this, the school would be making attending classes for students easier both by making finding a parking spot easier and by having the portable classrooms located to the rest of it's buildings.  This would help to encourage students to continue attending classes at SLCC instead of dropping them half way through the semester and not enrolling in the next one because their experience was not enjoyable.

Responding to Comments

While not everyone can agree that they can relate to the problems of having a class out at the portables, they have at least been able to sympathize and see how this could cause some problems.  Not everyone has had the misfortune of having to deal with making it over to the portable classrooms and if they have, they might have even been lucky enough to have had their next or previous class as close to the portable classrooms as is possible.  In that case, complaints about the long walk might seem petty, but after having had deal with this situation it has seemed far from it.  Others have suggested that any other possible solution that would have eliminated the PC's and the problems that come with them have already been looked at, but that the school's administration found this to be the best way of having it.  I'm not sure that that is the case, organizing class schedules and campus space is something that i think more thought could have been put into.  As SLCC has added classes it seems to have put them wherever they could because it's easier, but not more efficient, for them to do it that way than to look at the bigger picture. 

advantages

there are several advantages to writing a blog that can not be found in any other format of writing. the most obvious is that is easily accessible to anyone anywhere, whether you know them or not.  Along with being able to read what you have written, readers can also add their own input to the blog and it becomes a conversation instead of a single sided article.  Comments can also add to what is being said along with being able to back up the point that is being made.  Students of Salt Lake Community College can easily reach this blog and read about some of the school's issues, the issue in the case of this blog being the location of it's portable classrooms.  Ideas and issues are easily spread and shared from students to campuses faster than they would if they were using any other medium.  Students of other schools could also potentially find this information and possibly be able to relate to whatever the issue might be and be able to use it as a reference for similar issues at their own schools, helping them to be able to back up their own points that they are trying to make and making it clearer that the issue is actually problem because there is evidence of there being a similar issue in other schools.  Anyone can find the information as easily as they can share it.  Blogging isn't limited to those who have gone into English and allows everyone to be able to share their ideas and thoughts easily.

conversation

Everyone who has read this blog so far has at least been able to relate or sympathize with the hassle of having to make the journey from campus to portable classrooms.  Not everyone, however, has been able to say that the hassle has caused them excessive tardiness.  This, I'm sure, has had to do with that their classes are, before and after their expeditions, as close to the portables as they possibly can be. My other classes are not the closest to the portable classrooms, but neither are they the furthest away. Another possible explanation for this would be that they are also taking earlier classes and are able to get prime parking spots for having to cross over to these classrooms, giving them easier access.  My classes seem to all be at the peak of the rush at the Redwood Campus, making it almost impossible to get a parking spot, get out of the parking lot and cross the streets where I have to make two left turns through traffic to get to my class before it starts successfully. Because most students attend classes during the busiest time of day, I'm sure the majority that have classes at the portables understands the difficulty of getting to these on time, where as students taking classes later on in the day might not have run into as many problems with it.

direction

Salt Lake Community College should, if not consolidate their many campuses, the point of their being so many to make them more accessible, at least make the classes on these campuses, actually possible to get to.  As the number of classes and students at SLCC has grown,  the amount of places to put these has dropped, forcing the school to add relocatable classrooms to their campuses.  The problem with these relocatable classrooms, is where they've been put isn't very accessible or convenient.  Every day on my way to classes I notice empty classrooms that could have been a place to put the class I have to walk across the street to get to.  It seems like SLCC should be able to rearrange class times to make them all fit into real class rooms.  Consolidating class schedules might also help with the problem of having to find a parking spot in a parking lot that's packed.  If this isn't possible, maybe SLCC could relocate these relocatable classrooms to somewhere closer to campus where they would be easier to get to.  Making a parking structure would make the most of the limited space the campus has.  Instead of expanding, cars could be stacked, potentially creating enough space to add an extra building or an area to relocate the portable classrooms to.

Defending the Position

That I have to make the walk from one end of the campus across the street to the portable classrooms could be seen as being my fault for having signed up for the classes, but in my defense, i didn't know and had no way of being able to know exactly where these classes were going to be.  It seems like they could rearrange class schedules so that all the classes could fit in actual class rooms.  Sure, Salt Lake Community College should focus on teaching and their classes,  but what's the point if no one can make it to these classes, at least not on time?  I'm sure that they could consolidate classes and their times better to make it work.  Part of the appeal of going to SLCC is that there are small classes, sure, but just by bumping the class schedules around a little bit it seems like they could get them to fit right with out ruining the small community college charm.  Having to make the walk is bad enough, but having to do it in the cold makes it worse.  I can drive my car over there, but then I have to make two left turns on the same busy street and that takes about as long as it would to have walked it.  They could have at least put the portable classrooms somewhere more accessible. If they were to have done that, however they would have made the parking situations that's already bad as it is even worse, as unimaginable as that might seem.  The solution to that would be that they should try to find a place big enough to hold all of it's classes instead of creating a thousand extensions that hardly make getting to them worth it. But the best solution would be to get rid of the portable classrooms all together and just rearrange the class schedules to make them fit.