One night, my friends approached me with a problem. They're gamers: sitting at computers for hours on end, battling it out with people who live halfway across the world. In the midst of doing this, they were issued a summons by an RA: ordered to clear out of a dorm lounge they were using. It turned out that the situation was not as bad as they thought; they could stay in the lounge, but had to let residents know it was open for others to use. They also had to clean up a little before they left.
However, that night we were all up in arms. How could they be told to get out without as much as an upfront complaint? Were people really so afraid to voice their opinions? We wondered what was wrong with society while my friends got ready for their hearing the next day. On top of that, it was aggravating that a bunch of overall good students couldn't find a place to play their games. Before this, they'd lost access to Java City when it was no longer open for twenty-four hours. That was something they could get over, but for a long time afterwards they felt that it closed each night to shut them out.
It's been suggested that these places need to be used by other students as well; that the quiet, public areas in a dormitory or on main campus are not the best place for gamers to play. I think the question brings up a good point: everyone needs a little space to do work, relax or play uninterrupted. However, I also think that any group, be they gamers, studying students or anyone escaping stressors on campus, has to compromise due to the sheer lack of space.
This is not saying that Longwood's campus is not positive or beautiful. It's saying that Longwood's campus is in a state of confusion. There are too many students using too little space to accommodate them and people's needs are being encroached on. Sometimes, as was the case with my friends, those needs seem in danger of being disregarded.
The pressure of Longwood's overpopulation isn't felt strongly in the educational buildings. It doesn't crush anyone in the Student Union or Greenwood Library, but it can be felt strongly in Dorrill Dining Hall and the Residential Buildings. I live in French which, due to its large vacancies, has become the overflow for huge Freshman-filled buildings like Frazer and Curry. Here, six person suites are occupied at half capacity. However, even this may quickly dwindle away into another den of overcrowding.
Once again, this is not an issue with the students themselves. It's an issue with the ability of infrastructure, once perfectly adequate, to deal with our present needs. For example, the Dining Hall, during high-traffic lunch and dinner hours, is a place that epitomizes over-crowding. Seats become hard to find and food hard to access due to the choking number of students also in search of a meal. The rooms of high rises, which are designed for two students, are consistently paired with three. The registration periods are also always a slug, operating at a snail's pace in response to just a few thousand requests.
So, we have to ask ‘What is the answer?' Longwood's staff seems to have something to say for that too. Start sending upperclassmen off campus. The solution couldn't have been more succinct if Mr. Kurtz came up with it. And though this answers the trouble of some over-population, I feel it does not actually address the problem. If Longwood losses a portion of the students crowding campus, there is no guaranteeing that the ranks of freshmen and sophomores may not eventually fill the gap.
For this reason, I feel Longwood should work less on replacing the aspects of its image as enlarging and rebuilding them. The Dining Hall should be able to deal with the crowds every day without losing room, the Residences should be able to house students without stacking them or forcing them to go off campus. And myLongwood should have the contingencies of larger universities, so that it does not shut down under stress. However, if Longwood does not have the funds to make facilities better, it should consider a very difficult decision: slowing enrollment and sending more rejections due to the inability to take an exponential amount of students. Tuition is the life blood of any University. However, if it does not create a livable habitat, that resource seems sure to dry up. So, this is a message for the future: the masses need not only bread, but living space.
