Let me precede this essay with a statement: I do love my school, UH Manoa, I just think there are necessary improvements not only for this school, but all universities. This may seem like a rant, but it is more a call to arms from experience and resources so that future students can have better experiences with their college years.

We as students need to take action. If there are improvements that we want made or if we want to change budget plans, we need to start writing. Sitting by and passing time taking classes until we graduate is not going to help. If the facilities that we utilize to covet an education are not to par and are actually downright dangerous, how can we be expected to learn? Health hazards now can prove detrimental in the long run as well. If we are breathing mold, or if someone gets stuck in an elevator or classes are ultimately cancelled because the plumbing finally went, we are going to pay for it later in life.

It may not seem like much at first, but this can cause a lot of problems. College has become an extended version of high school. We go through the motions and tolerate as long as we can until we leave with degree in hand. College should be about experience. We need to take action to enhance our experience. It’s time we took charge instead of standing by in the wings waiting. Facilities need to be fixed because they are hazards and not based on the popularity of the major or education offered in that particular building. And if they’re going to cut our classes and options making it impossible for use to stay on any sort of plan, don’t cut our tuition too. Use the money and offer classes. Raise tuition a bit if you need to. If we are stuck in college for extra semesters and years because they do not offer the classes we need, we are paying too much anyway. Increase the tuition and offer the classes now. We as students deserve healthy and comfortable learning conditions.

This applies not only to the classroom settings, but stress levels. If you by credits have a semester left but because of the offering of classes may be held for another year, unnecessary stress can build. And like senioritis doesn’t get bad enough, it’s dragged on. Or even think of the fact that the pressure to graduate quickly easily overrides the desire for particular classes. Students wait an extra semester or year for a class they actually want if a substitute now is available. And if we as students try to place out of a class, we should be able to. In my own experience and a couple of others, we’ve had to stay extra semesters for requirements that were ridiculous. I’m originally from California which, if you’re from there, you know that means I speak Spanish at least moderately from exposure. Coming to UH, I took a Spanish placement test and placed in the 400 levels. And yet, this semester finds me here simply to finish Spanish 202. A fellow student friend of mine is from Brazil and Portuguese was her first language. This semester she too is in Portuguese 202. Why? We should be able to take a substitute on culture or bypass. Teachers also seem to have the same concerns as students.

About one year ago, I was sitting in my 8am class waiting for my instructor to come in. I was having just and idle conversation with a classmate when an angry professor stormed into the room and threw her belongings on the desk in the front rom. Shocked, the class proceeded to inquire the reason for her distress. What followed was a 20 minute rant on the budget cuts and fallible architectural designs of the buildings on campus. She discussed how each building had some sort of major or even dangerous aspect that could cause harm and even more monetary inconveniences for the UH system. Evidently these huge and possibly costly disasters in the making were again being overlooked for other so called “improvements” in other areas. There were a few key complaints that stuck out from the rest of her rant such as the fact that the plumbing in three buildings, especially Moore Hall, was literally about to completely break down. In her own words, “If someone takes a large enough crap, the entire plumbing system in the building could blow”. Talk about a mind opener on a Monday morning. The next was the Kuykendall elevator. Evidently the cord was so deteriorated it could snap at any minute. I have since heard horror stories about friends that have gotten caught in the elevator between floors and literally had to crawl out. One of the last scary possible disasters was the air conditioning systems on upper campus being so old they were officially recycling mold. Recently they have begun replacing the air conditioning systems in different buildings, but not all, and not even the most necessary ones.

These major issues need to be addressed. Budget cuts and misappropriated spending have led to many of these potentially epic misfortunes being ignored. The largest irony is that if any of these troubles actually escalate, the damages and potential lawsuits will cost the school or even the entire UH system significantly more than it would take to fix it now. Even worse, one of the major deductions from the 2009 budget is security. They are closing the MCC dormitories and recently built, “A new privately owned 400-bed dormitories… which will generate a general funds savings of approximately $10,000” (FY 2009-Budget Adjustments). The new dormitories would have cost a significant amount more and have no security whatsoever. So we save a measly $10,000 on security and now not only are the students who live on campus at a higher risk, but other buildings are still waiting for repair. There was also a rather large sum of money, the exact figures were not printed but they were higher than double the $10,000 savings, put forth to build these new dormitories and we still have the old buildings. They will officially serve no purpose. UH would have saved over $30,000 if they had simply fixed up the old building instead of making an entire new section. Granted they were old and rugged dorms, but now we have less space, an extra building, and even less money.

Another big problem is that because there are so many little problems, there is a prioritization problem. What is the most necessary improvement now? What do we have to do to appease the individuals who donate funds to the UH system? Sadly, because the law schools and other specialty majors bring in a significant amount of money the repairs for their buildings seem, for some reason, a little more important. There is the Manoa Deferred Maintenance Backlog which offers a list of every minor to major improvement that has been put on the backburner. High on the list is the improvements necessary for Moore Hall and Kuykendall Hall. The topic for both is “Reconfiguration” which if you look up on the website means that the plumbing, AC, and other repairs (like an elevator) are included. What is also interesting is that this list is 5 pages long on Adobe Acrobat Reader with at least 30-40 deferred improvements. At least twelve buildings, according to the list, are in dire need or reroofing. The number one improvement is in Moore Hall. According to this chart, the reconfiguring of Moore Hall is estimated at $430,000 which is $45,000 just for the design and $385,000 for the actual construction (Manoa Deferred Maintenance Backlog). This list is from 2008. If we look at the 2009 repairs and renovations planned, Moore Hall is finally making the list. What is interesting about this list though is that majority of the $25 million improvements have to do with air conditioning repairs in several buildings. An elevator that could snap at any moment is still not on the list. At least the air conditioning will be fixed in several locations, but again not all. The air conditioning on many of the lower campus buildings was recently repaired over spring break. The music wings and dance rooms had the A/C repaired, and yet, they are failing already. If you look at the repairs lists and see how high of a priority these air conditioning systems in lower campus are, you might need to look towards the bottom. But, if you look at a chart that will prioritize the developments by price smallest to largest, this improvement was very close to the top.

While we as college students go through the motions of figuring out what we want to do with our lives, what our specialties will be, and where we want to go, we need encouragement. We need classes offered that are beneficial to our college experiences and efficient over time to save money. We need an environment that is healthy and we certainly don’t need extra stress that the possibility of faulty architecture brings. Some of the buildings and departments that get their funding and repairs are due to the noise. If we want these buildings fixed, we need to take action. We need to write, rally, or petition. These are only some of the issues I faced and they will probably affect so many others. Don’t be passive in your college experience; you have a right to demand for your education.