IF I COULD CHANGE UMD.....

One thing that I would like to change about UMD is the Freshman meal plan. I do not like the fact that freshman residence of the dorms are required to eat at the Dining Center. The food that is served there is not worth the money that is charged. Even if a meal is skipped we still must pay for it. The meal times force students to eat at times that may not be convenience. If I could change this system at UMD, the meal plan would be on a credit basis and the D.C. would stay open all day. Then only the meals that a student eats are being paid for. Another solution to this problem would be to create a mini kitchen in every residence section. These mini kitchens would consist of a sink, oven, and stove. This would solve the problems with eating times and the variety of food eaten. Many other college campuses have these kitchens on every floor of resident halls. It is handy and an alternative to cafeteria food. Having the ability to cook meals and the option to refuse the meal plan would make UMD life for freshman students a much more pleasant place to live.

 

What is one thing I would like to change about UMD?
-If I could change just one thing about the University of Minnesota Duluth, I choose to add a Financial Service Office. This office will have financial aid counselors for each student here at UMD with a purpose of getting students on the right track for paying their tuition bills. I personally had many problems applying for loans and getting my grants to go through. Some of this may have been delayed by the clerical worker’s strike, but the problems started long before. These financial aid counselors would be similar to the academic counselors, but specializing in helping students maintain a budget. This would be a very helpful addition to the university in multiple ways. The first way it is helpful is the stress decrease in students. The second area this would help is the promptness that UMD can depend on for getting money from students. The final way that a financial counselor can help is the utilization of Aid from FAFSA and other private sources of financial aid. As you can see, this would obviously help a student’s burden of paying for school along with give job opportunities for people to work in this Financial Service Office. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Change?

One thing that I believe should be changed at UMD is to get rid of the categories each student has to be under. This gives the student restrictions to other classes or fields. This is terrible for students to explore areas of interest especially for undecided students. There is the freshman seminar or College Learning that is a waste of time and gives no real help in studying or offers any other kind of valuable information. Whatever happens in these classes can be offered in other programs outside the ridiculous requirements of attendance and activities that still don't have a purpose (or even a lesson plan). We should also remove categories for registering for classes so that all courses are completely open to anyone regardless of major or what kind and how many credits they've received. The schedules needed for academic goals would be given to the student would have complete control of his curriculum. Our parents or students are overpaying for housing, classes, and food while the University can't even keep their clerical workers in school. The administration's needs to be more focused on teaching the material instead of school policies.