CLASS LOCATION CHALLENGE
By Morgayne Mulkern
Comment Staff
After perusing various state college websites in the University of Massachusetts system, I realized that Bridgewater State University stands out as one of the few Massachusetts state colleges that does not post their class locations until months after class registration.
This can be very frustrating because while it is a fairly small campus, a walk across campus from East to West side takes most students at least ten to fifteen minutes. When students do not know where their classes will be, this can make it very difficult for students to make a class schedule that assures they will make their classes in a timely manner.
Even worse, class locations here at Bridgewater State University are subject to change until the very last minute.
Since I am blind, I need to learn the routes earlier over the summer with my guide dog before school starts. When the class locations for two of my classes changed last minute, it was very frustrating because I had to schedule new lessons during the school week, and retrain my guide dog to the new classes.
Marisa Parker, another blind student is faced with a similar challenge.
“Two of my class locations changed last minute,” Parker said. “This made my first day of school stressful as I had to learn the route to the new class locations.”
Parker added that the staff at the disabilities office said that they had flagged our names on a list so that this wouldn’t happen, but for some reason it still did.
Blind or not, trying to create a schedule without knowing the location of classes is challenging.
“I find it inconvenient when the classes are spread out,” said sophomore english major Jordan Beaudry. “When I make my schedule I would like to organize my classes according to their location on campus to save time, and not knowing the locations can make this difficult.”
Morgayne Mulkern is a Comment staff writer. Email her at mmulkern@student.bridgew.edu.
