Renato Ramblas
Friday October 2,
2014
Professor Young
English 1100 Writing
Skills Workshop
Essay 2
In Valerie Kinloch’s essay entitled, “Harlem
Art, and Literacy and Documenting ‘Harlem is Art’/ ‘Harlem as Art’”, readers learn
about Harlem through the eyes of two students in Harlem. The Harlem community
as Phillip and Khaleeq (two students) see it is art but because of
gentrification that art is being taken away from them. What was once a
community full of African American history and culture is now being overrun by
white people who are moving to Harlem.
As a result, the community Phillip and Khaleeq once knew is changing
right before their eyes thus causing issues for African Americans in the
community. Although this is not occurring in my community, issues are still
present in my community. In my community Farleigh Dickinson University, there
is an issue with finding parking. Commuter students attending Farleigh
Dickinson University (FDU) do not have sufficient parking spaces to accommodate
the amount of students attending the university thus the FDU administration
should do something to resolve this problem.
FDU has
parking spaces for professors, visitors, and commuter students. However, those
who drive to the campus are only permitted to park in assigned parking lots. In
this case commuters and visitors both share parking lots 2 and 8 at FDU and are
only permitted to park in these areas or else their cars will either get booted
or towed. Speaking as a fellow commuter student parking lot 2 and 8 just does
not have the capacity to park all commuters. As a result, one end up searching
for a good ten to fifteen minutes for a spot to open or they have to park far
away and walk half a mile to get to class.
The lack of parking spaces is due to
students realizing dorming in college is too expensive. College is not like
high school where education is free to all students. If one wants to further
their education they must cough up thousands of dollars per semester in order to
do so. Some students may be able to pay the full costs of college life however,
not all students come from a family that can pay their children’s college
expenses just like me. I do not come from a wealthy family and my parents
struggle to pay for bills, my brother’s college expenses; however, aren’t that
worried about mine because I choose to commute. By commuting I saved my parents
hundreds of dollars preferring to live in my comfy home than to live in a
closet for five months.
My story is very similar to other student’s
reason why they commute to FDU and in the near future one can expect an
increase of commuter students at the campus. With so little parking FDU administration
must take affirmative action to solve this problem by cutting down the tress
behind the current parking lots in order to create more parking spaces for
students. Many times we do not observe the communities through which we travel
until it’s too late (Kinloch, 147). By cutting the trees behind the parking lot
it will create more room for commuters to park. The trees behind the parking
lots cover a lot of land and by clearing half or more of the trees it will benefit
the commuters.
Another way to expand the parking spaces at
FDU is to expand parking lot two so that it stretches up to the football field.
I have noticed there is a large amount of space that is empty between the
football field and parking lot two. The space is just a small field of grass
that serves no purpose being there. If
FDU administration are able to extend parking lot two commuter students will no
longer be aggravated when they cannot find parking.
The
more and more I think about what the FDU administration needs to do to satisfy
the commuter students parking dilemma, I realize the students themselves should
speak up. If one does not speak they cannot be heard. The FDU administration,
have other problems at hand to solve to make FDU a better community and may not
realize commuters lack parking space. In “Harlem Art, and Literacy and Documenting
‘Harlem is Art’/ ‘Harlem as Art’”, Phillip says, “It’s time that young people
stand up and talk.” Without the voice of those who are suffering from the
problem how can one get help? If commuter students all speak to the FDU
administration something will be done to build more parking spaces to park in.
FDU
is a college that needs to provide commuter students with more parking spaces.
The current parking lots (lots two and eight) no longer have enough space to
park in. Commuters are forced to drive around searching for a spot and in most
cases students end up parking very far away. FDU administration should expand
the parking spaces by cutting down the tress behind the current parking lots in
order to create more parking spaces and expand parking lot two so that it
stretches up to the football field. In order for this to occur, commuter students
should speak up so the FDU administration can resolve the problem. If no one
speaks up the problem will not be resolved case and point.
