Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Signs of the Times?

An observation from a month or so ago (when I seemed to be spending all my time draft-conferencing, or, all too occasionally, sleeping, and passing through the campus at odd very early and very late hours in between), and when student-government campaigning was in full swing (which for us means flyers and chalking):

It seems to me that improved wifi has replaced improved parking as the most popular student government candidate platform.  

This makes sense in a way, since our parking infrastructure has improved (garages have replaced several parking lots) and the fee structure is more rational (you can pay more for a guaranteed spot
and/or a shorter walk, or less for a considerably longer walk from a lot that never fills up completely), but the wifi infrastructure is seriously overtaxed in some spots (including some of the bring-your-own-device classrooms, which is, well, a serious problem, and I don't appreciate classroom IT support telling me "oh, yes; we've been having problems all over campus." Fair enough, but if necessary to provide reliable service, the classrooms that are designed with the assumption that wifi will be working need to be on a separate, more robust, more closely monitored and carefully maintained system.)

Or maybe the stereotype is true, and millenials (even suburban millenials) just hate, or at least don't care about, cars? 
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3 comments:

  1. Southern Bubba, Ph.D.May 30, 2017 at 11:00:00 AM CDT

    Reminds me of this nytimes article.

    And I might agree with the students on this one. Twenty-five years ago, with a car, it probably would have taken me all day to find that article. Today, with the google, it took less than a minute.

    Also, the post title. . . goose bumps.

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    Replies
    1. EC1May 30, 2017 at 7:12:00 PM CDT

      I'm a known sentimental fool, but when CM turned purple after Prince's death, ahhh....

      Very few of my real world colleagues can affect me like the posters and mods of RYS and its descendents can.

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    2. Contingent CassandraJune 2, 2017 at 4:10:00 PM CDT

      I'm not sure I disagree with the students, either. At least I seem to be getting fewer excuses from students who live off campus and think that if their car is in the shop and no one can give them a ride, there's no possible way to get to campus. They seem more aware of the existence of public transportation than their early-21st-century counterparts.

      And I hadn't known that Prince had a song by that title (or any song quite that political). Although I'm technically a member of the MTV generation, we didn't have a color TV, let alone cable, so I missed that part of my cultural education. Glad to fill in a bit of the gap via youtube, so thanks, Bubba!

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