UVUSA RESPONSE January 31, 2011
Student Government responds to the most commonly asked questions collected from suggestion boxes during Fall Semester, including topics on parking, the waitlist system and newspapers on campus.
Can UVU get more parking around campus?
After the first few weeks of the semester when everyone has a definite schedule, Parking Services send out staff every week who count, on average, about 500-800 available slots out of the nearly 8,000 parking spots available at any given time around campus.
They do these counts between 10 a.m. and noon, during peak hours of travel.
The reality is that students are frustrated that there aren’t more spaces close to an entrance to the school. For example, the free lot next to the testing center always has spaces available.
Administration is looking at building a new parking structure in the “L” lot, as well as putting 400 new student parking spaces next to the new running track.
Overall however, parking here is much better than most universities both in price and availability.
Why do we use the waitlist when registering for classes?
Many students have expressed frustration with the current waitlist program. One concern is that other students will, at times, sign up for multiple classes in the same section.
The school is looking to change this, allowing students to sign up for only one class per course, thus eliminating clogging of multiple lists and creating logjams.
A great strength of the waitlist is that it allows departments to know how they should specifically allocate resources and which classes need to be added.
Why can’t we have The Wall Street Journal or other more conservative papers available on campus?
The newspapers that are currently made available on campus offer a refund for those issues that are not used and returned to the company. This makes it affordable for the school to offer them to students.
Since The Wall Street Journal does not do this, it is cost prohibitive to offer it.
Why is the UVU Review so liberal in its comments and articles?
The job of any newspaper is to be unbiased in reporting the news. Those who read that newspaper judge how well a newspaper achieves this goal.
Your personal filter will greatly dictate how you view the bias or lack thereof in a newspaper story. The articles in the UVU Review are geared first and foremost towards reporting the happenings on campus. An invitation to write in and respond on any commentary is given.
Lastly, the truth of the matter is no matter where we go in life there are always going to be opinions contrary to our own. How we react to those opinions is up to us as individuals.
For many of us, there will come a day where we venture beyond the safety of the “Zion Curtain” and into the vast unknown where lifestyles, opinions, and political affiliations. contrary to our own abound. Just think of this as good preparation for that day.
Where is the school in relation to the Center for the Arts building?
The School of the Arts is in the very early stages of planning for a Center for the Arts. The school has developed a wish list of the kinds of facilities that would best meet students’ needs in the future building.
They are now collecting data and working with a statistician to help develop a model for projecting enrollment. These projections will help determine the quantity of certain spaces we might need. Having this kind of data will allow us to move to the next stage in developing a comprehensive list of the necessary facilities for it to operate.