Check out www.cornellsucks.com: yeah the site doesn’t exist. Neither does www.nyusucks.com, princestonsucks.com, not even lowly binghamtonsucks.com. So what’s the deal with this school and all the self-loathing? It’s as if Stony Brook is a spawning ground for masochists everywhere; there has to be some common factor. In depicting the following problems, all accounts are my own and may not necessarily reflect on your experiences. 

I think the first problem is simply one of precedence. Where else can you go into the middle of a university, yell out “Stony Brook Sucks!” and find a chorus of people yelling in agreement. It has just plain become cool to hate on Stony Brook, be it on administrators, professors, TAs, or the living arrangements. I suppose there is nothing that can really be done to fix the attitude of the students except for time. 

Perhaps if this magically becomes a better place to live in, word will spread about our good tidings. There is good news though, we went from the #2 school of most unhappy students to #4 ^[1], though it was quite difficult to do much worse. If we keep this up, soon we’ll be out of the top 5, and maybe the stigma of self-hatred will leave.

I have seen quite a few things in my 2 1/2 years here, and I feel these are the most glaring problems. First and foremost, the words and actions of Stony Brook administrators tend to be contradictory. They claim they do things for our benefit, but anyone with half a brain can clearly see there are a number of agendas being pushed around.

One such example is all the needless construction and road maintenance. Was remodeling Staller Center really all that necessary?  How about that pointless garden entrance to the Union? Why does it seem like an inadequate amount from our tuition is going into our education?

Why do they constantly try to “beautify” our school when there is an innumerable amount of repairs that could/should/need to done? Fix the damned Roth path to the SAC so it doesn’t flood! How about the flooding at engineering and IN the Union? Indeed, there are many buildings in need of renovation. The scaffolding has surrounded the falling bricks on Physics since before I got here. 

The second is the lack of recreation available for students. As an avid basketball player, one of the staying factors and some of my fondest memories of Stony Brook have come from the courts. However, the times that the courts are available are often restricted to regular students because of sports teams practicing. I’m all for our sports teams doing well, but do they really have to give them the entire gym so that casual players cannot find some action? For a school with over 20,000 students, are six basketball hoops honestly enough?

And the pool hours? Come on, free swim two hours a day? I can’t even begin to rant on how wrong that is. Compared to most universities of our size, we have probably amongst the worst recreation options, smallest gyms, and again, the overall impression that the bare minimum has been spent to keep us physically satiated. 

When is that new proposed recreation center ever going to be built, and is it going to be enough, or will it simply temporarily divert our attention away from the lack of things to do here? There’s no arcade, no bowling alley, no skating rink, no golf, and a lack of good field area close to campus, all indicative of a university expressing apathy towards its students. 

Oh, and I’ve played billiards in 7 different buildings with tilted pool tables or unusable surfaces, and ping pong on chipped or uneven tables. I hope you’ve brought your own equipment because many times the RA office either won’t have pool/ping pong equipment to loan you, or it will be damaged or grossly inferior to even Walmart brand stuff. 

Dorm quality can be shady, especially in some areas (*cough* Roosevelt *cough* Kelly *cough*). I have heard accounts of walls scraping off and dispensing asbestos-like materials in the room. Carpets and bedding are old and decayed. But if you want to ever order anything fixed, you might as well buy a lottery ticket. You’ll be a multimillionaire before your busted desk ever sees a repairman.

However, the most common complaint you’re likely to hear is the quality and variety of food. The food courts are simply in a rut and tend to serve mostly uninspired food. Worst of all, there seems to be a direct function of healthiness to price; that is to say that the healthier the food is for you, the more expensive it is. With the already steep prices, this is a major setback for health conscious people who cannot bring themselves to pay the outrageous prices for healthy food. 

Live. Learn. Eat. Die of a heart attack. Thanks Campus Dining! 

But we have only hit the surface of the problem. I feel there are many problems stemming from the inside – sociological problems if you may. I feel I have to attribute much student loneliness and detachment to the tendency to form “cliques” on campus, particularly due to clubs and organizations. If you are some poor freshman with a notion that you could come to Stony Brook, one of the most diverse colleges in the world, and intermingle and make close-knit friendships with lots of different types of people, it pains me to inform you of the contrary. College living is almost like an amplified version of melodramatic high school life, and segregation occurs everywhere – amongst genders, races, social classes, intellects, sport teams, and occasionally common interests. 

Clubs, particularly cultural clubs, and fraternities and sororities, tend only to exacerbate this problem, and thus leave the average Stony Brook student, who is not a part of all these groups, seemingly alone and estranged. When you meet someone on campus, in class or at an event or just grabbing food, odds are he or she already has a group of friends they belong to and you’re mostly likely not going to find a spot there. This leads to defeatism and ultimately a vicious cycle where you want to give up on every cool new person you meet.

Furthermore, we are all quite aware of the mad dash home of commuters every day after school is over, or for perhaps 50% of the campus on the weekends.  This contributes to a “ghost campus” feel when classes are not in session, and perhaps the feeling that no one on campus has the same interests you do (which probably isn’t true).

The truth of the matter is, I get the impression that people are somehow less accepting of others’ differences in college, and a lot of the time people feel like they are too cool (or not cool enough) to know certain people. What crap!

What Stony Brook and we as the student body need to attack the problem is a multi-pronged tactic. First, Stony Brook needs to do its part to:

1) Instill pride in us through showing more interest in students needs, not just winning sports teams and academic achievements. 

2) Provide sufficient means of recreation, socialization, and to stop being such tightwads with that change purse.

3) Allow USG to have more big events like that of Kanye West and Dave Chapelle to increase name recognition and allay the stigma of going to a university that seemingly doesn’t care about its students having fun.

Students in return should do the following:

1) Wean off the dependence to feel accepted by people by joining clubs, frats and sororities. Everyone wants to meet people – it doesn’t have to stop after freshman year, just keep an open mind and heart to people.

2) Make an effort to stay and make the campus fun for us. We have opportunities to help ourselves, so let’s organize things other people would be interested in, be open to letting others join in on the fun, and take back what the campus community never gave to us – a lively environment.

3) Lose the idea that every week/day/other day/hours has to be dedicated to partying. So many events have such terrible turn outs because you think the plans for getting trashed are better. There’s so much time for partying – sacrifice just a little of it to go and try other activities that many groups put on praying for a good turnout. Why not brighten their day, and besides, we all know cool people show up to parties fashionably late (and pregamed).

I have a dream. That one day Stony Brook University will be a university of reverence. Of happy students. Filled with pride for their school, their peers, their professors, and their life. Where students party to get down and have fun, not to forget about their troubles and hard classes. Where the school will want to develop each individual to his or her fullest potential. Where everyone, irrespective of their race, skin color, gender, social status, and popularity can fraternize. This is my hope. This should be our hope.

[1]   http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/rankings/
rankingDetails.asp?categoryID=6&topicID=44

Click logos or photos for info!

Useful Links

Academic     Advising    Center

Campus     Calendars

Club Webs

Counseling   Center

Faculty    Staff     Directory

SBU Web    E-mail