Likens: Lowman Student Center wastes student tuition

Along with the usual features of Homecoming week (loud noises, uncomfortable places to sit and various food items to inevitably vomit back up later that night) this year’s homecoming hosted the voting for two of the proposed renovations on campus.

Both passed, with 74.6 percent of students approving expansion in the Health Center and 63.48 percent of students voting “yes” on the Lowman Student Center renovations. This correlates rather well with my own observations that somewhere between 63 percent and 75 percent of students are idiots.

As far as my own experiences have shown, the Heath Center seems to be functioning fine. I have personally been there many times, and never experienced any problems with overcrowding, extended waiting times or getting appointments. But maybe the problem isn’t as obvious as that. I still see no need to expand the Health Center but am willing to give the benefit of the doubt, within reason. It’s the fact that the LSC renovations passed that truly boggles the mind.

The new additions to the LSC ought to be as welcomed a renovation as the average brain tumor, but yet again, bright colors and shiny things have overcome the forces of good. Paving the road for a multitude of exciting new ways for the university to charge students for even more things they aren’t going to use, the LSC is due to receive a pub and bowling alley. The Texas State University System claims the project will cost about $30 million to complete, a cost that will naturally be paid for by further increases in tuition.

If the college was looking to do a true service, the bowling alley could be dropped completely and in its place they could simply post a nice placard giving directions to the bowling alley five minutes away from campus. As for the pub, it can be forgiven if it is given an appropriate or crude name, such as “The Beerhole” or “The Drunken Bearkat.”

This misguided use of funds is made all the more unsettling by the fact that I have yet to hear of any logical reason parking at SHSU has to be as utterly miserable as it is. To my knowledge, the only proposed actions against the parking problem all involve parking garages, which unsurprisingly requires payment each time they are used or a single payment of $300 per semester. On top of that, even the earliest of these expansions isn’t due to begin until 2016.

While it would certainly be an interesting experiment to move all faculty parking to the edge of campus and see if there is any sudden change in priorities, I feel that in the meantime expectations for better parking should be kept low. Bowling alleys and pubs are big, boisterous things that catch the eye and reel in students. Their revenue, at least.

These renovations are safe bets. There is sure to be at least a small portion of student applications owed to them and SHSU will reap the benefits. They just won’t have anywhere to park.

Shame is upon you, students of SHSU. I already consider it an accomplishment if I get home in the evenings without having to get to know anyone new. I don’t like most people and intentionally raising my tuition gives me all the more reason to self-seclude.

Guess I’ll be having tap water for dinner again tonight.