BROOKLYN COLLEGE–After a year as a Brooklyn College student, I’m setting out for greener pastures, or the hope of finding them, because this cannot be it. Having started here during the first in-person semester since the start of the pandemic in mid-2020, I’ve seen and held a fair share of optimism about a re-emergence of the things people tell me BC used to have. All that optimism has been in reaction to the underfunding-malaise that hangs over the student body. I haven’t given up on recovery; I like this school. But I’d rather watch it from some miles away. These are some of the things that are keeping me away.
As has been mentioned multiple times by now in this opinions section, there’s no food on campus. Vending machines are different. $15 Belgian waffle trucks are different. We don’t have a cafeteria, and it’s almost winter. I do not doubt that the administration is trying, but that reflects pretty poorly on how much power they have. This is, it’s worth keeping in mind, not the case with a vast majority of college campuses.
When my friends and I started planning our academic schedules for the spring, we were each taken aback by how many classes were listed but are not happening next year. It only tells you once you try to put them on your schedule, which both adds to the annoyance and obscures exactly how many classes are cardboard facades and how many are real possible courses. The roster of classes has been filled out as the registration date creeps up, now looking decent with only days to go. Regardless, the sight of it (again, this isn’t the case with the other CUNYs) was enough for me to change my mind about making a BC schedule at all.
