JMU becoming stifled by number of students, lack of space

House Editorial

JMU is overflowing.

Parking is a disaster. D-hall is seatless. Students spend more time waiting in line for exercise equipment at UREC than they do working out. Dorms eventually will be housing students in bathrooms.

It's about time the administration stepped back and took a look at what's going on at this school. At a place that once was praised for being the perfect size, JMU now is becoming an institution that is more about the money than it is about the students.

Since the 1990s, JMU's total enrollment has made some staggering increases — going up nearly 500 students from 2002 to '03, according to the most recent statistical summary. That is 500 more students to cram into D-hall, 500 more cars to circle the full parking lots and 500 more beds to fill.

At this month's Board of Visitors meeting, Charles King, senior vice president for administration and finance, proposed building another parking deck to alleviate some of the congestion on campus.

He had a great solution, only there was one minor flaw — the university has nowhere to put it. Perhaps JMU can stick a few spots in between the new athletic performance center, which costs $9.8 million, and the eight-story Eagle Hall.

Lack of sports fields also is an issue. As JMU originally was a small teacher's college; it wasn't designed for a large influx of diverse field sports. Now, club and intramural teams are forced to work around inconvenient practice times because there aren't enough fields provided. Again, the board approved a budget to construct more fields, yet the closest proposal of field location is across from the McDonald's off Port Republic Road.

This year in Chandler Hall, a few less third-floor students will be hitting the books. This is because a study lounge on the third floor was turned into a bedroom — there was no other place to add two beds and two desks. Additionally, those two extra students have to share a bathroom with a neighboring suite because they don't have a suite of their own.

But, maybe the study lounge no longer is needed now because students can't get into the classes they want anyway. As more and more majors close their doors to non-major students, it leaves many people disgruntled — and rightly so. A graduation requirement is to have a certain number of elective hours, but students run into the problem of having nothing from which to choose. Classes also are turning their backs to subject minors.

While change and expansion are good things for JMU, the university must be careful not to forget who it is serving — the students. It is the students who linger around D-hall tables because there is no place to sit. It also is the students who pay between $5,000 and $13,200 a year for tuition alone, not to mention an additional $3,000 for room and board.

While the renovations of Harrison Hall continue to displace students, Grafton-Stovall Theatre is being used as a classroom — with no tables or desks for note-taking and testing. PC Ballroom is another location where students have been forced to acclimate to an unorthodox learning environment.

Admitting more students every year obviously is part of the problem, but mostly it is that JMU is not able to handle the increase at such a fast pace, as seen with the overcrowding of almost every facility. JMU officially is bursting at its seams.