I have lived on campus and attended class here for a meager year. Next year I will be transferring to another school, moving on, as they say, to bigger and better things. Yet I will never forget my time here. This is truly a great institution of higher education, but like everything else in this world it also has its flaws.
Particularly, the dorming experience.
Being as I am a light sleeper, booming music, people yelling in the hallway or outside, and (most hated of all) firecrackers exploding directly outside my dorm room window at two AM tended to significantly impede on my sleep. At such points of unwelcomed late-night disruptions or mid-day fatigue from lack of slumber, I felt nearly compelled to become a commuter.
My second major complaint would be the cleanliness of the bathrooms and the general appearance of the quads. Here, let me single out Roosevelt Quad, since I am a resident there and more intimately acquainted with it than the other quads. If you’re not sure which one is Roosevelt, I believe it may jog your memory if I were to say it’s the one that looks like the architect who designed it also designed prisons (rumor has it that he did!) and that around campus it is the quad most affectionately referred to as simply ‘The Ghetto.’
That title is not far from the truth. The inconsiderate slobs of my floor (you know who you are) choose to pollute and litter our bathroom in the most creative ways. But let’s not go into more detail than that on the issue of bathrooms in case you are reading this while eating your lunch.
All students would have to admit that waking up each day to the lovely site of toilet papered trees, having to crunch back and forth across the glass-sprinkled terrace, and stopping sometimes to glance over the site of whole mattresses, large amounts of garbage, or even computers thrown out of the buildings from several stories up-it tends to dampen the academic spirit, on occasion.
My third and final complaint about living on campus would have to be the food. I am completely sick of the food here. If I had my car on campus, I would live out of my mini-fridge. The food on campus is not only repetitious, unhealthy, and, sometimes, just plain bad, but it is a big rip-off. Can you hear me Meal-Plan people? You are gouging us! $4.25 for twelve ounces of smoothie is ridiculous. Over four dollars for a tiny, small, measly amount of sliced fruit is murder! Got it? If there are priorities to protest about anything on campus (cough, cough, yes, now I’m talking to you SJA and co.) this should be one towards the top of the list.
With that said, I want to now discuss the strengths and positive aspects of this University. Let me begin with President Shirley Strum Kenny. Dr. Kenny, you are a very personable and level-headed individual, and I know you are working hard to make this a better place to learn and live at each day. Also, I love your Texas accent.
To the professors and some of the very nice people working in the Academic Advising Dept. and in the Library: you give the prestige to this institution. After two semesters and thirty-four credits of classes, I have no complaints (except for possibly one teacher of Economics who forgot to show up to class one day). All of my teachers have been very supportive and always showed the utmost concern for our intellectual development. To single out a few: Professor Dawes, you have a great sense of humor; Cynthia Davidson, Thomas Tousey, and Clare Frost of the writing department, you are fantastic and it would be a great loss to the University not to have you; and finally Mr. Westermann, who teaches a fiction writing workshop, you are a treasure chest of aphorisms and you inspire me sir.
The opportunities to get involved on campus are limitless. If you’ve only explored a couple of the options available out there, or haven’t explored at all, then wake up! This is college, old chap. So it’s time to get involved and contribute something. You’ll regret it if you don’t. Whatever you’re interested in or passionate about, I guarantee you this campus has a club or an audience for it.
The credit for the most memorable part of my time at Stony Brook belongs to my peers, my fellow Brookies. I hope to remain close with the friends that I have made here for a long time. In an earlier article I wrote that the college experience is the people, and nothing else. I still believe that, and that it is especially true with Stony Brook. I doubt any of the Ivy Leagues have someone like Amberly Jane, or Geoff Grecynski, or Stan Adler. Because that’s what makes us different from other universities and, in many ways, better.
I like to think of Stony Brook University as being a person, a unique individual. It is real and down to earth. It has a wealth of personality and an endless amount of knowledge to offer all those willing to seek it out. It is an old friend whose memory I will always hold near to my heart regardless of the flaws.