If you go to Southeast Missouri State University you will know what I am talking about. There are many daily struggles that only Southeast students will understand. No matter how many times we complain about it, we continue to complain about it because it still bothers us. Sometimes we just want to go to who's in charge and say, "WHAT THE ACTUAL HECK?!" Keep on reading to relate to some of the daily struggles and comment if you have any other SEMO struggles to add to the list.
1. WHY ARE THERE SO MANY HILLS?!
I ask myself everyday why I chose to attend a school that literally takes my breath away within a minute. Between cardiac, mini cardiac, the Greek Hill steps, academic steps, and the walk to pig lot, there is no time to relax. Just looking at Cardiac Hill makes me have a heart attack. You can't go anywhere without breaking a sweat. It's hard to imagine the Freshman 15 even exists with these hills.2. Why do I pay for parking when there is no where to park?
Every night after I get off work I come back to campus and go to my designated lot and look and look and look and can't find a parking spot. What am I supposed to do? If I park somewhere else I am going to get a parking violation. It's a no-win situation. They issue way too many parking stickers for each parking lot and some people don't park in the right parking lots so it's so frustrating. They need to have less faculty parking and more student parking. They need a new parking lot for sure!
3. Towers Cafe is disgusting!
Sometimes I just understand how gross they make things in there. Once, during the week before Thanksgiving break, they made this stuffing and while I was eating it I found many chicken bones in it. I wanted to cry from how disgusted I was. It was a terrible experience and when I told the chef he acted like it was no big problem. Also, they have the same boring old stuff every time for brunch and there was even a feather found on someone's chicken wing.
4. The bookstore is soooo expensive.
I mean who has the money to spend like $50-$60 on sweatpants and $45 on a pullover. The clothes at the bookstore are way to overpriced and it's ridiculous. As if we don't pay enough money to go to this school already! I bought 3 shirts the other day and my total was $82, I wanted to cry. There is no way someone should every have to pay $82 for two t-shirts and a spirit jersey.
5. Why don't meals roll over anymore?!
I know that it didn't really give us our money's worth but it was so nice to have that extra flex. I am down to $18 in flex and it's only the second week of September, this is going to be a long semester. I had to switch to the premium meal plan in order to use all of my meals, which is definitely worth the extra couple hundred dollars. There is just not enough flex to go around but I have to say, not living in Towers anymore saves me a lot of flex because I am not tempted to go to Rowdy's at 10:30 p.m. to get a bag of chips.
6. The shuttles are wayyyyy too packed.
So SEMO decided to spend millions of dollars on their new slogan, "Will to Do" and then said they do not have enough money to keep all of the shuttles. There used to be green, orange, red, purple, silver, and river. But now there is only red, green, and river. I get on the shuttle every morning to go to class and I squeeze myself into a small space because instead of like 15 people on each shuttle there is like 30 and it is so stressful. The orange shuttle was very important and convenient and will be missed. I just don't see how they always say they don't have money when 13000 students pay them each year. But what can you do.
7. The dorms are just not suitable for older students.
If you look at other schools, they all have an option for the upperclassmen to live in apartment style dorms. It is much roomier and more adequate for the older students. Also, they allow the students that are 21 and older to have alcohol in their apartments because legally they are allowed to drink and I agree that this is what should be done. However, many of the juniors and seniors that can afford it move off campus because not everyone wants to live in a 'jail cell' for four straight years and when they are 21 and 22 years old.
I'm sure there are many other things that can be added to this short list. Every SEMO student knows these struggle and the stress they cost us. Someone please write a letter to the Dean of Students or the President of the University. Especially the parking situation, that needs to be fixed as soon as possible. But, no matter how many struggles us Southeast students face, we still have endless love for our school and wouldn't trade it and all of it's struggles for the world.
