If you have ever been on NSU’s campus during the weekend, then you would know the chaos that ensues. If you have not been lucky enough to experience it, then allow me to explain. All throughout Saturday morning and into the evening, NSU hosts cheer competitions for the state and beyond. The events in themselves are not horrible.The problem arises with the side effects of these competitions. It is utterly ridiculous that any student who stays on campus during the weekend has to put up with these competitions and the plethora of people who come to the campus.
I am willing to bet that every student who signed up to go to school here knew that it was a small university, but the fact that it feels as if there are more people on campus during these competitions than a regular school day is crazy. There is no reason for students to feel claustrophobic because hundreds of little kids are running around a university they do not plan to attend or pay to attend.
It would not be nearly as bad if the cheer population stayed in the Rick Case Arena, where the competition is taking place. However, they do not. There are parents, kids and numerous other visitors walking around the campus, so you can expect to confront a visitor anywhere from just beyond the exit of the dorms all the way to the UC.
These competitions come with hunger from their large population, causing lines out the door from both Razors Reef in the UC and even more so in Starbucks. NSU, however, thought of a way to combat these lines for students by creating fast pass lines for anyone with a Shark ID card and they work great — in theory. The Starbucks fast pass line does not actually exist. If a student wants to use this “line,” they literally have to cut in front of everyone and just walk right up to the counter; a true anxiety nightmare for plenty of students.
However, worst of all, the use of the fast pass line comes the dirty looks and unnecessary comments from adults and children alike. Friends and peers of mine have been verbally insulted and called out by these visitors simply because they want to eat breakfast on their own campus. Why should any student have to suffer verbal abuse for dining on their own campus?
With this plethora of children also comes solicitation. The fact that I cannot sit outside without hearing a parent scream at the top of their lungs for a half an hour straight, “Girl Scout Cookies, $15 a box” — which is horribly overpriced and frankly a rip-off — is insane. Am I owed no piece of mind here? NSU has a strict no-solicitation policy, so students on campus shouldn’t be pressured into buying cookies because someone’s child is unable to sell them on their own.
While this may be a little harder to control, NSU is very clearly a non-smoking campus. The fact that some parents think they are entitled to a “smoke break” when there are clear signs all around campus that say it is a smoke-free campus is dangerous to everyone. There is no reason why we have to physically suffer from real long-term consequences because of someone else and their bad habit. Plus, is it really right to be smoking next to any children at all?
Yes, I know that I could always call public safety regarding any of these situations, but it shouldn’t now be my responsibility to keep these visitors in check. I should not be under any sort of obligation to call public safety every Saturday when I hear an unruly mother, a soliciting child or a smoking father. It is simply not fair for the students who pay tuition to attend NSU.
These competitions would not be half as bad if they were solely one weekend, but the fact that they’ve been here almost every weekend for the last two months of the prior semester and have been here for at least two weekends of this semester is exhausting.
All I am saying is all of these problems could be avoided if NSU simply did not rent out the arena for these competitions — or at least control the visitors when they come on campus. There would be no rudeness, no violations and no problems.
Photo: K. Ang
