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.

Possible Opposition

To some, making the trek across campus in an attempt to attend a class that has already been paid for might not seem like such a big deal. I'll admit, complaining about a walk in the cold isn't as big of a deal as I might have made it, but that's not the point. The point is that Salt Lake Community College accepted my money, paid in full, for a class I can hardly make it to because of it's awkward location. There wasn't a discount, or even a heads up for that matter, for taking half of a class and the hassle of getting to it.  Now you might be thinking that it's my fault for having signed up for the class before having looked in to where the class was before I needed to be there for it, but the problem with that is that there wasn't any way to look into where it was. I haven't seen anywhere on the website where it says "this is where you're class will be." There isn't a single map of the campus anywhere on the internet to see where your classes are before trying to get to them.  So, on top of having to walk way further than you should have to, you have to go to the student center first to find a map.  Couldn't they just rearrange class schedules to fit them all in to the real buildings that they already have? Sure, SLCC should be spending it's time making sure they serve classes that are worth going to, but if getting to them is hardly possible, then  what's the point of them even offering the class?

Finding and Getting to the Portable Classrooms

Part 1 Finding the Portable Classrooms:

My frustration with the way Salt Lake Community College has dealt with not having enough classrooms to fit all of it's classes started with my first day at the Redwood Campus.  I had made it to campus early enough, I'd thought, to get a general idea of where my classes would be, but with the parking situation being the way that it is, I hardly had time to run into the student center to get a map and ask where my first class was.  After having printed out my class schedule and having compared it with a map of the campus, I noticed I had some classes that were labeled as portable. Even with the map in hand it was hard to tell exactly where these classes were. On top of not being familiar with which building was which, I was having a hard enough time figuring out which direction what building was facing. It took a while, but after spinning around and turning the map up-side down a few times, I felt like I was starting to get a decent idea of where "you are here" was. I made the move and started heading towards PC 103.  

Part 2 Getting to the Portable Classrooms:

Once I was off the actual campus I spotted what I thought these Portable Classrooms might look like, but after having made it all the way around them, there were no doors with the numbers on them I  needed.  I pulled out my map again and looked at it more carefully, this time noticing that what I had to cross wasn't a path in the parking lot, but an actual street that runs into Redwood.  I looked around and oriented myself with what part of the parking lot I was standing in the middle of and started off to where I thought I was supposed to be going.  When I finally made it through the maze of cars I started to cross the street, but all I could see was a bus stop.  This couldn't be right.  There wasn't a big bus stop area like this marked anywhere on the map..  I turned around and figured I must have had my directions mixed up and walked along Redwood to the next road that would intersect it instead.  When I finally made it to the next road that closed the campus in, I couldn't see anything that looked like a portable class room.  I decided that the combination of their being a lack of details on the map and my own lack of being capable to read maps wasn't getting me anywhere and to head back to the student center instead.  Once I swallowed my pride and finally asked where I was supposed to be, I found out that I had been in the right place after the first road I'd crossed, but that the classrooms were hidden behind the bus stop. The orientation had taken me most of the class time and knowing how long it had taken me to get out there the first time, I decided to bag it and start looking for my next class.

Portable Classrooms

After having taken a few semesters at the Redwood SLCC campus, chances are you've had some  experience with the portable classrooms.  At first, finding these classrooms isn't easy. "PC, what is this, Park City?" SLCC's "PC's" don't require a drive up Parley's, but it can definitely feel like they do. 

The classrooms are so far removed that they're even hard to find on the eagle eye view maps of the place that can be found scattered through out the campus sidewalks the first few days. By the time you've finally found where these rooms actually are, you've already missed most of the introductions to the course, and by the time you've made the journey over to them, the class might as well be over if it isn't already. 

As time goes by you come to realize the inconveniences don't stop at locating these PCs. You begin to get used to never being on time. Fortunately for you, your teacher understands the situation, saving you from having to go into detail of why you're out of breath and 14 minutes late.  In addition to being late because you had to make the trek across campus, your fingers are so numb from the walk in the cold you can hardly hold your pencil.

If SLCC knows how many classes they have, why couldn't they have ordered the class schedules to fit all the classes in real class rooms instead of having to add some portables? Are there really so many classes that every room on the Redwood campus has to be occupied full time, forcing them to create additional make-shift rooms?  It seems like they could rearrange class schedules better to save themselves from the cost of these extra rooms and us from the hassles these rooms create just by changing the times classes are scheduled. I'm constantly passing empty class rooms. Do I really want to be educated by people who can't find a solution that's better than this?