Emma Hamrick, Sports Editor
As students break out the flashcards for their first quizzes and settle into their new campus housing arrangements, students face changes and challenges.
New office locations, uncooperative weather conditions, and overflowing parking lots have put a hindrance on the first days of classes for many students.
Several offices moved to new locations across campus. The Carlisle Rogers Building that housed the Barney Barnett School of Business and Free Enterprise was renovated inside and out. Rodgers will now be home to a new student center, as well as Community Living, the Center for Student Involvement, the Career Center and soon a student lounge and a game room. The student health center was also relocated to the first floor of Thrift.
Plans are underway for a new admissions office and facility to house the graduate education program.
In addition to relocations, weather-related building problems have confounded the start of the fall semester. On Aug. 15 Polk Science building was littered with sandbags and plywood, all remnants of flooding that had occurred days earlier as the Resident Advisor team participated in training in the building.
“We were scheduled to be in Polk for training and it was raining out. The room we were supposed to be in ended up flooding to our ankles so they made us change rooms,” sophomore Melissa Simons said.
After flood cleanup, maintenance had the building prepared for the first day of classes on Aug. 26.
The beginning of the semester marked the welcoming of 600 freshmen, one of the largest incoming classes in FSC history. The influx of students on campus has renewed the need for student parking.
To help remedy the situation, new parking spots along Callahan Court across from the Enrollment Management building were created.
New parking restrictions are also present in the lot near the Branscomb Auditorium. Five rows of parking spots have been closed to overnight parking, leaving the back row closest to Johnson Av. open to students wishing to park their cars in the lot past 10 p.m.
Despite regular complaints from students that parking spaces are limited, the Campus Safety and Security Office said that “There is adequate parking on campus” and that “many times spaces may not be available next to the building or residence hall you are visiting” in a statement released to students via MocSync. The message reminded off-campus students of the availability of the shuttle system and reinforced parking protocols across the entire campus.
