Critiques for Pacific
Disclaimer: This is not an attack on our school or the faculty; the goal of the student body and the university should be a relationship where they both respect, listen, and trust one another.
As our school year ends, a majority of our fellow students have racked up a list of criticisms about our school. Some are comments of constructive criticism and some comments of pure resentment from students who feel wronged by our school. Searching and conversing with students from a multitude of demographics, I have gathered what changes the students want to see around the University of the Pacific. This is not an attack on our school or the faculty; the goal of the student body and the university should be a relationship where they both respect, listen, and trust one another.
Pacific’s Services
When every incoming student goes through a tour of the university, guides state how Pacific provides for students' recreational, social, and everyday needs with high-quality services. The university can hand out any information they want to folks with little regard to the actual living standard of their students. Is the information Pacific gives to our student body and incoming students the full truth?
Starting with the biggest complaint about Pacific’s services from the student body: Pacific’s food. A staple of everyday growth should be among the easier tasks for a university. However, from the student’s perspective, Pacific is lacking. A large majority of students hold an opinion of Pacific’s food to be repetitive, low quality, and uncreative. Every day at the DeRosa University Center the same options for cuisine are served: Italian, American, Asian, Indian, Mexican along with a sandwich station and salad bar. “I wouldn’t have an issue with the food options served if the food’s quality wasn’t so bad and inconsistent.”, a quote from a student and an opinion held by many more.
There seems to be a logistical disconnect between Pacific and Bon Appetit, the catering company hired by Pacific. We need staff who know how to cook and be creative with the menu because students certainly feel overlooked when it comes to our food. Not to say all caterers in Bon Appetit are ignorant; students definitely recognize the skills along with the friendliness of some of our caterers on campus.
A suggestion for this issue is a system of communication between the students, Pacific, and Bon Appetit. The students can tell the school their suggestions and critiques about the food. Then the school can circulate that information to Bon Appetit, so they can make the required changes for both good food and maintaining the trust between the university and the student body.
The next critique from the student body is our dormitories. Recently renovated, the dorms offer some of the essentials to a healthy life, Such as room and bed, potable running water, showers, washer and dryer, lounges for comfort, and trained resident assistants for guidance. From the perspective of an incoming student or parent searching for insight this may look promising, however, living in these dorms is completely different.
A big problem many students face every day is the poor maintenance of cleanliness and the general facility. Various accounts of insect infestations, water breakage and leaks, and unequal room placement have been reported from various students. In Farley House, located in the south quads, students had experienced an ant infestation for months on end. Residents have found their food contaminated by ants and their showers layered with the pests. When they advocated for extermination, they received nothing. Also in the south quads, a consistent trend of water breakage had been endured by the residents. Massive puddles of water emerged from water lines and clogged drains had sat unattended for weeks. This matter poses an imminent danger for students to slip and injure themselves.
The last issue I will state, but not certainly the last issue the dorms have, is unequal dorm room placement. Yes, the truth is each dorm is built differently with contributing factors such as size, cost, and accessibility. Holding those thoughts in mind, it is ridiculous how we all pay relatively the same amount for living. Every room in Grace Covell Hall is bigger than rooms in other dorm halls and every other dorm hall has at least six rooms where a massive corner is taken away from the room because of a support beam. It is ridiculous how we are all forced to live under such conditions and be forced to relatively pay the same.
A suggestion for ant infestations and water breakages is to just have a proper response unit. Yes, we already have them but where are they? Should we be forced to live under such conditions that can lead to attracting disease or getting injured? This is unacceptable. Lastly, why should students have to all pay relatively the same despite unequal spacing in all dorms?
The last critique, certainly not the last issue caused by Pacific’s services, is poor response times and poor management across the service departments. If you walk around the campus you are due to come across workers in neat blue uniforms with patches and name tags who drive around in tiny orange and white service trucks. The student body is to assume these engineers, technicians, and cleaners will tackle any sort of facility issue big or small. That hasn’t been the case, one student I interviewed had this to say about the matter, “UoP has terrible response rates when it comes to dorm issues, and a lot of the time since the actual issues are solved through a third party when it takes a while for issues to be addressed.” Why should we have to resort to a third party taking control of an issue when our university already has ‘professional staff’?
Although we experience poor response from the facility maintenance department, students also experience the same thing from technical, medical, and logistical services as well. Pacific’s medical services consist of a single building that is only open during 8:00am to 5:00pm and only on weekdays. This is not ideal, many of the students I have interviewed advocated for a 24/7 hour medical center. A 24/7 hour medical center would enhance the safety of all students on campus so we would not have to suffer with pain for 15 hours.
The University of the Pacific needs to improve the services for its students so they may ensure the overall safety and quality of our campus. This would be beneficial for students on tour, rankings, and funding.
Pacific’s Academics
College education is a cornerstone of intellectual growth so an individual may be rounded for their desired field of study in adult life. Pacific’s students have voiced their opinions to me about the current status of their education experience. With the data I collected, a majority of students say they are having a negative experience as this school year is winding down. A small number say they are having a positive experience and have relationships with their Professors. This segment of this article is not about questioning the intellectual abilities of professors or academic services. Rather a list of critiques from students along with suggestions for our university to perform better.
Pacific has a variety of professors who have earned the status to be called doctors within their respective fields of study and our university prides itself on them. However, there is a difference between earning a title and being a good teacher. We do have a lot of wise, kind, and constructive professors at our university. Unfortunately, a lot of students do not feel that way with a good amount of professors on campus. Students have said there is an inconsistency of difficulty in the same courses because of their professors. Students also told me how some of their professors' egos are too high, they give students attitude when they need guidance. One student said, “They get mad at me when I ask questions or underestimate the rigor of the material.” Should it be the job of any teacher to push aside their egos for the guidance of their students? My suggestion would be to have all professors take a course that teaches them the importance of education and how inserting their egos into teaching has a negative effect.
The next critique from the student body is unrecognized work. Students have explained how this is not much of an issue in courses of liberal arts but an issue in STEM courses. A lot of students experienced their graded work to be nonconstructive, generalized, and lacking proper feedback. Professors have a lot of grading work on their hands along with creating material for their students. However, they should add suggestions for their students to guide them in the right direction.
We should establish another system of communication between the professor’s supervisors and the students. This should allow students to write up complaints if professors continue to disregard students and change their methods. Students should have a voice; they may not be equal in intellect to the professors but they are the reason the professors are at the university.
What The Students Want Callahan to Know
Every student wants to see some sort of change on campus to better their and others’ lives. So I asked all the students I interviewed, “If you could tell President Callahan to change something, what would it be?” Out of all the responses I gathered the top three changes students of Pacific want to see.
First is the direction of funding: a lot of students dislike how President Callahan is handling the admission and other funds of our school. We want to see only the best from our hard-earned money so we may have an amazing college experience. Instead, students have become angry that Pacific invested a chunk of money into renting a new pickleball court, owned by a private company. What students want to see is our funds going to improve already established facilities, not expansion.
Secondly, students want to see the cost of living and tuition decreased. Understandably a majority of students are relying on student loans every year to get by in our school. Then they rack up a pile of student loan debt, having to pay it off for the majority of their lives. There would be an increase in trust between the students and the university if the university lowered their rates.
Lastly, students want more opportunities for internships. A majority of STEM students at the school wish they could have more opportunities to build up their portfolio with internships. The school can partner with more companies so more students can obtain those internships. Internships are more than experiences of work in the field, we rely on these internships so students can get good-paying jobs out of our college career.
Why the Administration Should Listen
There are three ultimate reasons for these changes that would positively affect Pacific’s income, reputation, and campus.
Firstly Pacific would receive a positive influx of revenue. If Pacific is to improve their catering around campus, students would decrease the amount they spend on outside restaurants. Meaning the amount of income Pacific receives from food would go up. Next, if Pacific is willing to improve all facilities and faculty campus-wide, investors and sponsors would recognise Pacific as a valuable asset.
Moving onto admissions, if Pacific would be willing to improve all of their facilities the school would receive higher ratings in private college leaderboards. So more students and parents could recognize the university and be more willing to send an application to Pacific. Applications come at a price, so if Pacific would receive a vast amount of applicants their revenue would increase.
Lastly is maintaining the mutual respect between the students and the university. If Pacific were to improve all of these facilities and pieces of the campus, students would feel more secure and happier about the university. No longer would students feel overlooked and more likely the students would recommend the University of the Pacific to family and friends.
With that in mind, the University of the Pacific is a great school and like all great schools, it has its shortcomings. These shortcomings are mistakes, the point of mistakes is so one can learn from them and adapt or change them.