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?