There are many people who often ask out-of-state students why they come to Southern. Honestly, I fell in love with the campus. But in my last semester, I’ve grown to dislike my “Large scale, small feel university.” What has happened to our school?
But within the past couple of years, things on this campus started to feel like a knockoff large feel university. So once Georgia Southern becomes my alma mater in 3 months, here are some things I would like to see changed or to return to campus.
1) The Dining Halls
When did Eagle Dining become so evil? Hey Eagle Dining, not everyone wants to sit down and eat and have unlimited, low-tier, food.
Landrum and Lakeside were great before they were changed to the all-you-can-eat buffet style. Please just get rid of the buffet style dining halls it’s a fail and just bring back the old meal plans. No, NOT budget bucks.
I mean the old meal plans where we had a set number of meals and could use them anywhere on campus. We were nourished enough back in the day, we don’t need bad buffets and sandwiches to sustain us now.
2) More Healthy Options
Why is it that we can’t find a decent salad on this campus? Hey Eagle Dining, not everyone wants to eat sandwiches and eat at Chik-fil-a every single day.
Now, I’ll be fair we did have a health foods store in the Union but it sucked! From what I remember, because it was so long ago; it used to be organic juices and dried up fruit.
But there were so many things that could have been put in there to make it better: a salad shop, sushi, a nice smoothie section, chais, trail mix, wraps, fruit and veggie plates, etc. Maybe if we had more healthy options, we wouldn’t all be forced to take kinesiology classes for a graduation requirement.
3) Restaurant Variety
Okay, so all of the campus restaurants accessible by the blue route are sandwich joints? Umm… do we need any more sandwich joints? I mean seriously, don’t you think the sandwiches are a bit redundant now?
We have Zach’s, Chik-fil-a, the Gus Marts and Market Street. Market Street is good, but it isn’t that good. What happened to the vote we made to replace the IT store?
Where is Chipotle? Do you know how amazing a Chipotle would be on campus?
Instead, we get another Gus Mart and what’s inside? Oh, Boar’s Head and what do they make? The make dry versions of Market Street sandwiches. Oh and half the time you can’t even get one.
Seriously, a Boars Head? They couldn’t put that in the Gus Mart in the Union? There’s also a sandwich place there. You could’ve just had them sell cold cuts.
Other universities have restaurant variety. Bring back Einstein’s, Cold Stone, and Talons. I miss Talons; I’m talking about old Talons not that sham they made out of it later.
For those of you who don’t know, Talon’s was where the Gus Mart in the Union is now. But it was like the Millhouse of campus. It had a little bit of everything and people actually used to go on dates there.
But come on, why is the IT Store across from the Bookstore and why not in the IT Building? Einstein’s and Cold Stone got replaced for an overpriced computer store. Hey GSU, news flash, students use this thing called Amazon to buy electronics now.
4) A New Forest Drive Building
Please, Xzibit, pimp out Forest Drive.
If you are a major that is required to be in Forest Drive (FD), you know the “Legend of Forest Drive.” How that trailer was supposed to be just temporary and ended up just staying?
Well, they are building us a new building but it’s not going to be done until two years from now.
5) Being Able to Buy Anything with Eagle Express
Eagle Express is like cash but not really. Why can’t you buy gift cards, tobacco, and alcohol (if you’re of age)? I’m not sure if the university is aware of this or not, but EE is nothing but Georgia Southern food stamps.
Meaning that, all a student has to do, is buy someone’s stuff in EE money and get cash and buy all the stuff they wanted anyway. You can get your hair done and buy overpriced makeup but not gift cards, tobacco, and alcohol, really?
Is this a parent thing? Parents don’t have access to our grades, unless we grant it, so why is EE such a big deal?
If students are dumb enough to squander all of their funds on alcohol and tobacco then that’s their problem. The same way if you fail all of your classes; you can hide from your parents for a little while but sooner or later they will find out.
It’s not GSU’s job to covertly parent us. Underage drinking is going to happen, some students are going to smoke, and make a lot of other irrational decisions and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
Just get paid and leave us alone. There are other universities that DO let students buy whatever with similar plans by the way.
6) Beer at football games
Aren’t beer and football supposed to go hand and hand?
Why does Georgia Southern hate money so much? Do you know how much you could charge for beer at games? I would actually like the stadium a lot more if beer was in attendance.
7) Smokers section on campus
So I’m all for the “butt-free,” GSU but do you know people are still smoking on campus? Let me tell you why, a few of these things: stress, exams, professors, and people and when life is getting them down, some people like a nice smoke.
It is nice for the people who do not like smoke to not smell smoke all around campus but there needs to be a couple of smoking sections on campus. This is college; we are adults; treat us as such.
If we want to smoke that is our business; let’s be honest, there are way more dangerous things people could be doing.