On Sept. 26, The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an editorial that sugarcoated Temple University and gave the impression that our campus is the most tranquil place on earth.
Temple is a great school, but it’s no Walt Disney World. Mickey Mouse has never been spotted walking through campus waving and handing out mouse ears, and students do not skip about all day with huge grins on their faces. Temple falls short of the Inquirer’s flattery.
The authors of this article should come and spend a week on Temple’s campus, and experience exactly what Temple has to offer.
After the computers “wash out” their class schedule, they can go to Student Financial Services. While sitting in the waiting room, their eyes will be glued to the monitor, waiting for their names to flash next. But, no. The student who signed in 20 minutes after them, is being called. After a 45-minute wait, they still don’t get any results or explanations and are told to come back the next day to speak with the head counselor.
Then maybe they can go and eat lunch at the Student Center Food Court and clot their arteries with fattening fried food because the only healthy food offered is a salad and the lettuce has turned a stomach-churning brown. Now, if they don’t die of a grease-induced heart attack, they can also inquire as to why the food is so expensive. Maybe, it’s because students will all keel over from heart failure, so they have to take all of our money as quickly as possible.
After a filling lunch, they can continue with their typical, frustrating day and go to the bookstore to search for an overpriced, out-of-stock Biology book. When they ask for help, the sales associates will either stare at them blankly, misinform them or completely ignore them.
If they manage to survive an entire week, they will have a deepened understanding of a student’s fury and complaints. The next article they write will not cast Temple in such a glamorous light.
According to the article, Temple is “jumping,” since enrollment has increased 40 percent in the past three years and the campus has built a new Student Center, dormitory and string of shops along Park Mall.
First, the Student Center (formerly SAC) is not new. The exterior and lobby are new, but the rest really hasn’t changed.
Second, if the 1,000-bed dormitory is so amazing, why are the dorms still overbooked, leaving students sleeping in the social or study lounges? Students pay $6,000 for room and board, and they don’t have a room.
Temple’s curriculum is a major issue President David Adamany plans to tackle. The article states that Adamany plans to “overhaul the school’s 13-year-old curriculum.” The new curriculum “would shift the emphasis from the traditional learning of information.”
Are Temple students to assume they are paying upwards of $50,000 (and that is if they make it out in four years) for an outdated education?
To get the real deal on Temple, one needs to go to the people who truly matter, the pissed off and irate students.
Be the first to comment