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At WWU, there is a lack of information for new students, particularly transfer students. Transferring to the university has been quite a roller coaster. Keep in mind I don’t care for many roller coasters, I tend to get sick. There have been several issues, admittedly, not all with the college itself (Chase is a horrible place to get a student loan).

My two biggest complaints here are the Parking and Residences departments. They are the people I’ve had the most issues dealing with.

As for housing, the whole process has been consufing (<- enough to turn me partially dyslexic apparently). It starts at the point where you apply to the college. Apparently, your application date has a big say in your housing status. You see, no one told me this, so even though I applied for housing a couple months before the deadline, I was placed on a waiting list.

Why should my later application date to the college decide that I don’t get the housing I want? What if I had been a student who had no choice but to apply last minute, but did everything else way before their deadlines? Everything should be separate. If I applied for housing before everyone, I should get first pick, not the other way around. Or perhaps a note on the college application would help, saying that your app will effect every other aspect of your college experience. The system is highly unfair. Also, Freshman and transfer students should get highest priority anyway, since most haven’t been up here before to know what the heck is going on.

I was placed in temporary housing, in the furthest possible “dorm” there is on campus, Birnam Wood, which are actually the campus apartments. Admittedly, these apartments look cheaper, but this is because they don’t include a meal plan. So I had to purchase a meal plan separately because they canceled it after placing me in the apartments. This is because “typically students living in the apartments buy their own food”…. What? I didn’t chose to live in the apartments! Give me my damn food! They didn’t even tell me they canceled my plan. They just did it. Good thing I noticed it was gone or I could have been screwed over.

Then you must take in to account the fact we have to buy all our cleaning supplies and toilet paper ourselves while it’s handed to the dorms for “free” (and they get their bathrooms cleaned by staff…we have to do it ourselves…which wouldn’t bother me so much if I didn’t have other things to do). Then there’s the inconvenience of having to take a bus 20-30 minutes round trip just to get a meal at the dining halls, or to go work on my art projects. Then the fact that the bed rooms feel much smaller than the dorm rooms, much too small to have 2 people comfortably inside. All in all, it’s probably the crappiest place “on campus” to live. Put it where the other dorms are, expand the rooms by 1 foot each way, give us a bathroom cleaning crew, and it’s gold.

What’s with putting new students in the furthest away from campus housing anyway? New students should be close to campus so they know what’s going on. So far this year I have been to no events or meetings because it is such an inconvenience. Maybe next quarter.

The other place which lacks more in information than even housing, was parking. The first day here we went to get a parking pass. They told us all lots on campus were full and we’d have to be put on a waiting list. What?! Apparently the deadline for parking passes was two months earlier. Why did no one tell us? No email, it wasn’t on the new student checklist, no letter in the mail saying “Get your parking passes now!”. It wasn’t something we thought of, especially considering the Parking website is nowhere on Western’s main portal page, the area I most used as an incoming student to find informational pages. I hadn’t even been to their site until about a week ago.

The lovely man behind the counter told us to park on the street, or leave the car at home. I’d hate to break it to him…but not everyone on campus lives in Bellingham. We don’t know where street parking is allowed, and home is 3 hours away so just leaving it there would be a bit hard at that point.

We leave, and later bump in to a student at the transportation booth at the info fair. He gave us a great idea…even though it’s not my car, get a parking permit for Birnam Wood since I live there. Back to Parking Services we go. Apparently “Full everywhere on campus” did not include the campus apartments. Parking Permit: $267. Ouch! Again something that was never addressed to us.

$267 is for the academic year. September to June. It makes it seem a little better, but that is quite a large amount, especially considering the fact that we had no idea the price would be that high, and the fact that Mike, who was paying for it, was unable to get his loan on time so he had to use a credit card (something he has still not recovered from).

The prices are something I have a big problem with. Especially being at one of the “green”est colleges. The prices just don’t make sense! Let’s take a look here:

Does anyone see here what I think is wrong? Particularly when it comes to motorcycles. Cars can hold 4-5 people (and the prices for a van are the same, so in that case, even more people, but no need to go there). Motorcycles can hold 1 and occasionally 2. Wouldn’t you think it would be better to have 5 people in one car than 5 people on motorcycles? So why is the motorcycle price so much cheaper? Well, of course it’s cheaper, but I mean cheaper per person it can hold. The price (yearly) per person for a regular 5 seat car is $47.39 in the Residential lots. I know it’s not much of a difference, but in the long run, that adds up. In the C lots it is slightly cheaper…but not even by a dollar. Why is parking services promoting taking a single-person vehicle over taking a carpool vehicle?

It also doesn’t make sense that quarterly passes are the same price as year passes. Shouldn’t there be some sort of discount? It could go either way. A discount for quarterly buyers because they are only driving for one quarter, or a discount for yearly buyers because they’re here so long. I don’t really care, but having them be the same price per quarter seems silly to me.

The other small thing that bothers me is jobs on campus. All the jobs being offered for the start of the year required you to be at the school 2 days before it was even moving day…what?! Campus jobs really make it seem like they’re meant for residents of Bellingham (not unlike parking, actually). Also I believe students hiring other students for campus jobs is a bad idea. Popularity contest, anyone? Really, let the professionals handle being the boss.

In any case, I doubt anyone this could help reads this, but keep these things in mind when going to WWU, or any college really. You have to dig for information. And no, emailing people will not help you as much as you would thing. Half the people here only half read what you say anyway (I had one lady keep saying I was a Freshman after I told her several times I’m a Junior…and one guy who didn’t realize I was in temporary housing even after I told him I was!). Oh well at least I know I’m good for my classes according to the advisors….at least, I can hope.