The College Blog is a partnership
between City Newspaper and Rochester Institute of Technology Assistant
Professor Dr. HindaMandell.
Each week City will post blog posts from several of Mandell’s journalism students, who will write about what
concerns Rochester-area college students, both on and off campus.
As RIT students know, the campus itself
is like its own little community. Everything that students need is all within
the 1,300 acres that make up the campus.
“I think that we’re in this little
college bubble,” said second-year student Caitlin Hoey.
With more than 20 dining locations,
and shops ranging from an electronic store to a hair
salon, students have access to everything that they could ever need.
The
only thing that’s lacking at RIT? The chance to get
off campus regularly.
As someone who grew up in Washington state, a place where
it was not only easy but common to take the bus 25 miles from Everett to Seattle, I’ve become accustomed to good public transportation. When I came
to RIT, I was expecting public transportation to be equal to that of New York
City’s public transportation. Boy, was I wrong.
Twice have I taken a bus from RIT to
Barnes and Noble in Henrietta (a 45-second commute) in which the bus driver
stopped the bus so he could take a “15-minute break.” Both times this little
“break” turned into more than 20 minutes, sitting in a cold bus, with about 30
other people fiddling their thumbs.
“I appreciate that RIT
has a free public transportation system, however there were many times I had to
call friends or walk to get home because it was more convenient for me than the
bus,” said former RIT student Brittany Burke. “The reason I never moved off
campus was because of lack of transportation to and from campus at all hours.”
This lack of transportation is common
for RIT students, especially younger students who may not have access to a car
on campus.
“I don’t get off campus very often,”
said Colleen Cambier, a freshman at RIT. “When I do I usually just get rides from friends or [sorority] sisters
or my boyfriend.”
Cambier
said that she usually doesn’t take the bus when she does go off campus.
“It’s not always on time and the
schedule is
very confusing,” she added.
RIT may have everything that a student
could ever need right within its bubble, but college students can’t – and
shouldn’t – stay in that bubble forever.
“I can’t tell you how many
times I have been to Jo-Ann Fabric, the mall, and Wegmans.
Not because I needed anything, but because I needed an escape from RIT’s campus,” said Burke. “Sometimes you need to get away from that [campus]
environment.”
Photo by Jake Jones
This article appears in Dec 19-25, 2012.
Great article on a obvious problem. I hear this reiterated by tons of RIT students who move into the city. I also know professors who say its common to hear staff discourage trips into the city because of crime. There are not enough connections between our colleges and our urban life.
Crime. Only if you wander into the southwest or northeast sections of town. Downtown is safe, as is the East End, South Wedge and Upper Monroe Neighborhoods. As for getting out; get a car, you need it around here. If you can’t afford a car, get a job. It’s not the publicly-funded bus service’s job to shuttle you around town. College students are adults. They should try acting like it, instead of little punks.
You have the rest of your life to live wherever you want, in a city or suburb or farm country. A few years in a little college bubble is part of the experience.