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Kris Anderson
'The Decline of Mojo'
Campus left in the dark
about Kassing's replacement
By: Kris Anderson
Posted: 4/14/08
Oh thank heaven for 7-Eleven.
Thank heaven for its convenience, its utility and its agency as a top provider of the last-minute mini crap we need.
If at 4 a.m., you have an insatiable urge for taquitos, but your microwave is broken, oh thank heaven.
If you can't think of anything else but a 10-pack of breath mints, oh thank heaven.
In fact, it's possible to say "Oh thank heaven" at three 7-Eleven's within two blocks of campus - talk about cornering the market.
We students know where 7-Eleven is and what it offers: convenience.
Everything is convenient in this world now. You can get anything instantly.
Miss the name of the song just played on the radio? Go to Pandora.com, and it will find the song.
Want custom-fit Jordans? Eastbay.com.
Want specially scented toilet paper? … Well, actually, you're on your own for that one.
Even voting on campus next week will be convenient, thanks to the utterly inconvenient my.sjsu.edu.
But for as much as we are surrounded by convenience on campus, there is one thing that I absolutely wish was more convenient: information.
Duh, it's a university, so I'm not talking about learning. I'm talking about information on who SJSU's presidential candidates are.
Why hasn't the student body been told anything yet?
I know that there was a meeting in the beginning of March, one that CSU Chancellor Charles Reed attended, but that no information about its proceedings was allowed to be released.
With current president Don Kassing a little over a month away from retirement, it scares me that the CSU hasn't released even a list of candidates for the job.
Only one person is allowed to "represent" a campus with more than 30,000 students. So when do the open forums begin?
When do the candidates tour the campus? Will the president be an alum?
How will he or she weigh in on California's budget woes?
There's plenty to be dealt with, and even more questions to ask. It's mid-April and the greater SJSU population has no idea what will befall them for the Fall semester.
What will the new president do about parking? Will he or she attempt to improve the on-campus parking situation, or go the road of attempting to convert commuters to residents?
Parking is an absolute disaster for this campus, and I want to know if the new president will have enough preparation to understand the depth of the problem.
The system as it stands doesn't work. Parking Services estimated that despite the 30,000 students who attend this university, the commuters that park on campus vacate a single parking spot roughly three times per day.
The logic is that one space is worth three. Wrong!
One space is worth three only after 1:15 p.m. That fallacious thinking pays no mind to the fact that the bulk of the student population arrives just before 9 a.m.
With lines and waits that extend up to 40 minutes for a morning parking space, the three-vehicle-per-day, parking stall turnover doesn't make sense.
And Park and Ride is a hassle as well. The buses all take 20 minutes to get from Spartan Stadium to campus. They are packed and sweaty and awkward.
How will the new president approach his first year? Will he or she be proactive? Or lay low and get a feel for the landscape?
Will the new president work with athletic director Tom Bowen as well as Kassing did?
Whether people care or not, a top-flight, elite athletic program is a doormat for the university. A winning football program earns money, gets fans and points prospective students toward SJSU.
Some people complain that the football program sucks money from the university's coffers, but the team has been standing on its own two legs for some time now. And the new president needs to uphold and maintain Kassing's strong relationship with the athletic department.
As a student, I'm worried about this lack of information in the land of learning. There are just too many questions and not enough time.
"Umm … Mr. or Mrs. new president, who are you?"
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