Although
There are some good things about the Univeristy of the
Incarnate Word, such as the professors and accesability to them
and the academic prgrams, there are, unfortuantly, many things that
the University lacks as a college. For example, they
tend to let things fall through as far as extracurricular
activites go. When I atteneded there I tried ti join
6 clubs, all of which never met or when e-mailed
or called, the organization leaders never got back to me.
I think this is an unfortunate flaw because this does
not allow:
1) The student body to meet eachother and
therefore develop relationships
2) fails to enhance the academic experince
3) fails to deter soe of the most common
reasons why students leave a college: because they are not
being kept busy enough to forget about homesickness.
Another things
that SEVERLY lacks is the mean plan. When I started
at the university I put myself on a meal plan
only for it to be changed during the summer. The
news mean plans costs about $3,000 a semester which covers
15 all you can eat meals. This however comes with
it;s hang ups. If you don't use the 15 meals
over the duration of the week, they meals you did
not use don't roll over you just lose them. Also
if you use up the 15 meals before the end
of the week, you can not use any fromt he
next week. You just pay cash.
Which brings me to
the crappy food. I once went down to the cafateria
to get some turkey only to find that it was
not even cooked all the way and when the cook
noticed this, she switched the turkey out....but used the same
tongs she used to serve the raw turkey to serve
the cooked turkey. I have also, on a few occasions,
found roaches in the salad bar. Not the mention that
the food is awful as it is. I once bought
a friend who came to visit me the food and
out of a meal of Grilled cheese (only half melted),
green beans, and pasta. He could only stand to eat
the griled cheese because the green beans “tasted like plastic”
and the pasta “was cooked to mush.” And since most
of the food places on campus are provided with things
made from the cafateria, there isn't ANY good food anywhere.
And you have to buy a meal plan if you
live on campus.
The residents halls are also awful. For
one, no room is the same size. some are way
bigger and others smaller (even within the same hall) but
the room price is the same. Also, the hall matience
is awful. When I arrived at the university, my bed
was broken and I could not sit on the end
otherwise the matress would fall through the frame. I put
in a work order move in day and no one
came to fix until 3 weeks later. Also, on really
cold nights, my roommate and I would have to bundle
under 4 or 5 blankets because the school would not
turn on the heaters in our hall. It was only
turned onw hen my roomates father finally called and complained.
We told our RA about this before hand, but she
never got back to us. Also, on move in day
my roommate and I decided we wanted to make bunk
beds but to do this we needed metal pegs which
our RA said she would find for us but never
did. My dad ended up having to make the pegs
for us but then no one ever came to put
the beds up. Another thing about the residents halls is
the lack of washing machines. In our hall, as in
many others, there was one washer and dryer per floor
(each floor holding about 24 people. Most of the time
I had to go to a laundry mat to get
mylaundry done.
Another thing lacking at UIW is their attendance
policy. Although some teacher do not doe this, they are
allowed to take points off your final grade for attendance.
It is even school policy that if a certain percentage
of classes are missed, the teacher may ask you to
drop the class. BUT they themselves will not drop you
from the class (like most colleges would) so if you
don't go and drop it yourself, they will give you
a failing grade as a final grade. It's another way
they leach money from you. Not to mention they have
a lot of bogus classes that you must take such
as dimensions of wellness. That class was a waste of
my time and I learned absolutly nothing.
And like any
other school they try to take money from you whereever
they can. When I withdrew from the university they had
to go through my room and asses damages. At the
beginning of the fall semester they give you a sheet
and you have to go through the room and write
down things that are already wrong with the room. I
did that but was still fined for things in the
room that were already broken and accounted for on the
sheet already. They also try and get money from you
when it comes back to selling books. I paid $300
for my books at the beginning of fall smester and
sold them back before the spring semester and only received
$95 for the book none of which were damaged.
And
finally the last thing wrong with UIW (although I am
sure there is more) is the lack of knowledge among
staff about the rules and regulations. Their website is severly
out of date, and if you asked 5 administrators the
same question about a policy, you would get 5 different
answers. For example, when I wanted to join a sorotiy,
I was told you could not join one ulness you
completed 12 hours at UIW (dual credit did not count)
however when I filled out the application, they still let
me rush despite the fact that all my hours were
dual credit hours. Also even though in the rule book
it states that you can not join a soroity until
your second semester, I was allowed to rush in my
first semester and no one knew if that was okay
or not.
I believe the university's main problem is that
they are trying to grow their student body without the
proper facilities or organization that it takes. Unless you enjoy
chaos and are only looking to get an education and
leave, UIW is not for you.