Now, I don't know about you guys, but I happen to have a terrible sense of direction. I've been lost in just about every town from Gary to Muncie and back again. I inherited this trait from my mother (who's been known to get lost going to work, where she's been employed for nine years). I'm not one of those people who can't admit it when they're lost. I take full advantage of every restaurant, gas station and bar that I come to. It even gets worse when I travel, especially to foreign locations, because I have even less of a grasp over the terrain.
For the longest time I thought the reason I had so much trouble finding my way on campus was due to the fact that I'd taken after my mother's directionally challenged nature. After doing a little field research, I've discovered that I'm not the only one around here that's confused.
For a university with such a renowned architecture department, it makes me wonder who in the heck has been designing our buildings? The worst one on campus has to be North Quad. Now, I'm a Japanese major, so I've spent the better part of the last four years weaving around its corridors, and I still get lost in it at least once a week. It's one of the only places that I see people constantly asking, "How do I get out of here?" The sad thing is half the time I can't even tell them that much.
I can't help feeling like Alice, minus the tripped out psychedelics, as I attempt to find my classes. There are signs posted all over, but following the arrows can be very misleading. It's one of the only places that you have to walk up a staircase to find half of the first floor. As one of my professors once put it, "North Quad is a labyrinth." I guess the real problem comes from the fact that it is actually made from two buildings that have been joined together. Now supposedly it's on the list to be renovated, but, uhhh, we all know how that can go. So I think I've come up with a plan that will help those of us who have to struggle around BSU's version of the Siamese twin.
Why not station a tour guide at each of North Quad's entrances? Wouldn't it be great to have someone there to direct you? It would be wonderful to actually be able to walk up to one of these guides and ask, "Excuse me can you show me where the Modern Languages Department is?" They could smile and then say, "Why yes it's located on the first and half floor, follow me please."
This could really alleviate a lot of stress, I mean goodness knows how many students have been swallowed in the bowls of this black hole. I'm sure it would even be a sought after job since those hired wouldn't have to brave the elements. We should start a petition I think this program would benefit both the faculty and student body. It snowed last Friday, remember all you guides out there winters just about here.
Write to Jessie at jerenslow@bsu.edu
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