This campus lacks community

By: Alexia Lang

Posted: 10/6/08

Good colleges shouldn't be so hard to come by.

Growing up, I spent many an evening in the professors' lounge of my small, hometown college, while my poppa chatted with his colleagues about topics completely above my comprehension at the time.

He worked there as a teacher, mentor, security guard and whatever else they needed for years.

Needless to say, I learned to love the collegiate environment and have developed many opinions about the way a college should be run.

Those same professors I sat and talked with at night during my childhood were eager for me to grow up, enter college and take their courses. As time passed, I lost interest in the career in law those good men had selected for me. They eventually surrendered to this and accepted my choices would be different.

I began my college life at Johnson County Community College (JCCC) studying journalism. It was quite a change from the college environment I had grown up in.

However, even to this day, I have never met a JCCC student who could honestly say he or she didn't think it was a good school.

JCCC's education standards are set at a university level and the campus has a sense of community that is not often found on commuter campuses. Students get involved, professors care about their students, and just about any event on campus has a good turnout of students, staff, faculty and other community members.

Perhaps I have been transformed into a Johnson County brat, or maybe I was just spoiled during my years of schooling in one of the richest counties in America. But UMKC has been by far the greatest educational disappointment I have ever encountered.

Apparently disillusioned by Johnson County's precedent, I arrived on this campus expecting more student involvement, more campus life and more educational resources - after all, many students actually live on campus so they do not have to make much of a journey to attend events. Right?

It seems the students' sense of community is completely absent. Only a handful of students actually get involved on campus and even fewer show up to the events - events we pay a lot in student fees to host.

We should not be paying so much to go to school where we walk down hallways that look like they have not been painted for 40 years.

I head to classrooms the size of my bedroom, where 35 students are crammed in elbow to elbow.

Call me cynical. Tell me I'm a dreamer. But I am here to get an education, network and broaden the horizons of my future.

I want to go to events and get to know my fellow students. I want to be able to have intelligent conversations with professors who are on campus longer than the amount of time it takes to teach their class. I want to feel assured that I will have the tools I need to complete my education and get a decent job.

I'm not saying UMKC is a total loss. There are a lot of good people here and there are a lot of good events held on campus. But obviously something needs to change.

Students need to identify and take advantage of the good resources here and the administration needs to focus efforts more effectively on providing quality education and creating a campus community. There needs to be a joint effort. Otherwise, what a waste.

alang@unews.com