Dear Editor:
I am a student at ETSU. The last time I checked, students were required to pay a technology fee along with their tuition.
Now, you would think that since students helped to pay for equipment, they would have a say as to what needs to be purchased and how it is to be used.
It is not like that. There have been five “classrooms of the future” created on campus at a cost of $120,000 each coming directly from student technology fees. In my four years on this campus, I have utilized one of these classrooms and I only used it once.
These classrooms stay closed and can only be used with permission by a professor. Students have no say as to what the rooms can be used for and when they can use it but are paying out of their pockets for it.
Also, many of the labs are being used for classes and it is difficult to know each lab’s schedule.
What really is shocking is that sometimes labs that are for students use are closed! I could understand if it was 3 a.m. on Christmas Eve but not on a typical school day at 9:30 a.m.
There is no excuse for that. Students paid for the computers. Let them have access to them.
Also, recently, we had snow in the region. In Johnson City, the roads were not in bad shape. However, what needs to be remembered is that some students live in different areas and commute to and from school. How do people expect students from higher elevations such as Mountain City to make it to class on time?
I was watching the news that morning and all area colleges were at least on a snow schedule. Also, in the town I live in, school was closed.
Needless to say, I about broke my neck making it to class.
I sure am enjoying my college experience. Fellow students, let me know of your experiences and bring them for submission into the East Tennessean.
Derrick Leonard
Bristol
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