Campus “Safety”

May 22, 2019May 31, 2019 by lernkern48 ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

One thing that not many people outside of the college experience is North Central College’s police officers. Only those who are frequently on campus really get to know these officers…or should I say students.

A good majority of the campus’ police officers are students like me. They are still in college or fresh out. You see them roaming up and down the residence halls occasionally, dressed up in their police uniform doing nothing but making sure the noise is not too loud.

The campus safety officers take turns sometimes shuttling students back and forth to doctors appointments and “patrolling” the campus. I believe their power is quite limited because I have not witnessed them do anything besides talking to each other, asking if someone is “okay” and more walking.

The college does have real, licensed officers that are more trained than the students. You can tell which officers these are by their lack of excitement to be on campus and their uniform have a small hand gun attached to it. You can also tell the “real” officers from the students because the real officers ticket people’s cars in the parking lots.

For as long as I have been at the school, nothing physically violent has happened on the school’s premise where a campus safety officer had to intervene. Honestly speaking, I don’t think that a campus safety officer would know what to do if something like that happened but that’s just a personal opinion.

There have been many incidents with campus safety in general. A lot of students complain that if a report is incident, whatever it may be, the officers are slow to respond and seem like they do not really care.

There have also been reports of campus safety not doing their jobs. I once witnessed a handicapped student call campus safety for a ride back to his dorm room because the weather was inclement. It was super icy outside, too icy to walk safely. Campus safety said they would not help this handicapped person and hung up on the student.

I personally called campus safety a few moments later saying that you need to pick up this student because he needs help. With an annoyed sigh, the officer said, “Alright I’ll come get him.”

It’s these kind of interactions with campus safety that make any student feel like they are not actually protected by the college. All in all, my recommendation is to know how to not need campus safety because it’s like they aren’t even here anyway…they’re only here to give you parking tickets.

Murderer on the Loose

May 19, 2019May 31, 2019 by lernkern48 ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Early January of 2019, the campus had sent out an email to all staff and students about a “person of concern.” This “person” turned out to be a bald, 50-year-old man that is OBSESSED with North Central College. Oh yeah…and he’s also a murderer.

Kurt Johnson was charged for murdering a man back in 1993 and has been in jail for over two decades. The story goes that he was attacked by his ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend at the time. They were in a heated fight and in self defense, Johnson shot the man four times. He then fled the scene and the police chased him on Interstate Highway 80.

I don’t know the exact circumstances, but how the hell did this man not get sentenced for life?

Johnson has been known for stalking women and being a straight up creep. So how exactly did he get involved at North Central College? The story goes that he applied to obtain his masters degree from NCC but claims he was denied due to his past. He believes he has been wronged by the college and wants everyone to know about it.

After being rejected he sat in on a few classes before students and staff started to realize, “Oh you’re not supposed to be here.” Once that realization came about, Johnson was fined with a no trespassing warrant. This means that he, to this day, is not allowed to step foot on the North Central campus.

You may think this a safe option but it’s not. Since the campus does not own the sidewalks, you can occasionally see Johnson walking on the sidewalk handing students fliers with screenshots of his Twitter feed.

Campus Safety literally does nothing about this either, because they can’t. I wish they could…but they can’t. I feel unsafe whenever I see Johnson lurking around the sidewalks of campus. He has visited North Central College’s sidewalks a numerous amount of times and even though he is constrained to the public sidewalks, that does not mean he can’t hurt anyone.

Johnson handing out fliers. Photo via NCC’s The Chronicle.

He shot someone and if my knowledge is correct, you can kill many people with a gun from the sidewalk. I don’t know if the college has considered that at all but all we can do is just hope that he does not pull a gun out on students walking by a sidewalk.

Parking Can Kiss My Ass

May 16, 2019May 31, 2019 by lernkern48 ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

North Central College is located in the downtown area of Naperville, Ill. This cute and quite college gives you such a quaint feel right when you step on campus. That is, if you can step on campus.

One of the largest downfalls of North Central College is its parking situation. NCC has very limited amount of parking space and the problem has only grown with the amount of students who own cars nowadays.

.Street parking at North Central is always busy.

Sure, North Central has parking lots for students and faculty but it is no where near the amount of space that this institution actually needs. Plus, to park on campus, it costs about $400 per term to have a parking pass… PER TERM! That is a shit ton of money to pay to maybe get a parking spot.

There is free parking around campus too. Unfortunately, it is controlled by the city of Naperville because it is street parking. You can only be parked on the streets for four hours at a time.

And they will ticket you even if you are a few minutes over four hours.

Many commuters, students and teachers complain non stop about the parking situation on campus. It simply is not enough space. Professors are late to teaching and students are late to class because they can not, for the life of them, find a damn parking spot.

On top of this, North Central College is known to host many events. There are many “outside” cars coming on our campus taking up our spots. It’s literally a mad house!

Something must be done about this because it is on the border of ridiculousness. Maybe instead of using our 3% tuition raise money on a new Campus Safety Jeep that I’ve never seen any one drive, it should be used to something that benefits literally everyone and start renting out parking lots or look into making a parking garage.

Come on North Central, I thought you were smarter than this.

Striving to “Be Normal”

May 11, 2019May 29, 2019 by lernkern48 ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

It’s been a long time coming that North Central College switches to a semester system. From the beginning they have been on a trimester set up with three, 10-week terms equaling one school year. It was only time to be on track with basically the rest of America’s way of doing school.

Lucky for me, I am the smack dab in the middle for this change from trimesters to semesters!

Personally, one of the reasons why I chose North Central was because of trimesters. Though the course work is fast paced, I enjoy having a new set of classes every 10 weeks. It keeps me from being bored. We would get six weeks for winter break which did wonders for my bank account and we didn’t start the new school year until after Labor Day.

No one really has an exact explanation as to why we are having this switch either. Most people think it’s a way to make our school on track with other schools for breaks…but no one is for certain.

The transition was explained to us when I was a freshman but was not explained to me as I was looking at the school and in the processed of enrolling. Maybe that would have influenced my decision, maybe not. But what done is done.

This 2019, I have had to make several “Individual Transition Plan” (ITP) meetings with my academic advisor. Bless her soul because I have had come in with many questions about the transition and if I will be graduating in time if I take certain classes.

From these ITP meetings, I found out that I do not have to take another science class! But on the downside, I took about 3 classes worth of nothing and none of my classes while I studied abroad counted for anything but credit hours. It’s no big deal I guess. I have “Waste my time” written on my forehead anyway.

Many people ask me about my thoughts on the transition switch. I honestly don’t have one yet. I don’t know how the school and the professors are going to teach with having 5 more weeks. They may slow things down (which is what SHOULD happen) or they may keep things the same speed and just add more shit. Only time shall tell. And I will tell you, when we get there!

Be Our Guest

May 9, 2019May 31, 2019 by lernkern48 ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Dining at North Central College is, to put it simply, not the greatest. There are 4 main places spread throughout campus to get food. Let’s go through each one of them shall we?

Kaufman Dining Hall

Kaufman, often refered to as “Kman,” is North Central’s main dining hall. In this dining hall, one can use their meal plan for an all you can eat experience. The food at the dining hall typically has mediocrely prepared food. Cooked meat is overcooked, sometimes there is crunchy pasta, vegetables are soggy and for the most part, everything tastes processed and bland.

I have personally seen gross, raw, food come out of large, plastic mystery bags. Your safest bet of getting decent, nutritionally average meal is the salad bar.

The vegetables offered at the salad bar are unusually pigmented and a tad bit wilted, but how hard is it to fuck up vegetables? The salad bar has spinach, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes and many other options to make a salad. I know eating only salads would be boring, so I guess sometimes you’ll just have to settle for the other below average food they offer.

The Cage

The Cage is the next most popular dining option on campus. It is known as “The Cage” because when it is closed, it supposedly looks like a bird cage (go cards). But no one really knows because who is there when it’s closed?

The Cage you can get super greasy pizza, knock off Mexican food or most likely Tyson chicken strips. The food in this “dining hall” is all fast food items. One word that can describe any food you choose to eat from here would be, greasy.

The presentation is also pretty unsatisfying as well but I guess that fits the whole “style” of The Cage anyway.

Au Bon Pain

Au Bon Pain, or ABP for short is supposed to have the small-town coffee and sandwich shop feel. But that place is so cramped it feels more like a squished-up gas station. At ABP you can get bagels, sandwiches, coffee and salads. The food at ABP is not that bad actually.

Since ABP is popular, because it might be the best place to get food on campus, one might find themselves waiting up to 15 minutes for a bagel with cream cheese only to find out that they lost your order and you’ve been waiting for nothing this entire time. It is quite the experience having to go through this multiple times in a week but that’s North Central for ya!

Freshens

Lastly, we reach Freshens. Freshens is located inside the ResRec building and is kind of a hidden place. Probably the least popular food option on campus, Freshens offers smoothies, rice bowls and macaroni and cheese.

The smoothies are not something to write home about. They normally have the consistency of frothy juice and I don’t know how they manage to pack the taste of freezer burn in their smoothies, but I guess anything is possible.

Freshen’s is also known as the place most people get food poisoning! Yep you read that right. Occasionally, you come across a poor soul that orders a rice bowl that has some type of meat in it. Hours later they are throwing up in the bathroom, stomach in pain telling their coach they can’t make it to practice or their teacher they can’t make it to class.

I’ve heard this happen a few times from people I know and have experienced it once. And where does it all come from? A rice bowl from Freshens.

All in all, North Central College keeps their student’s fed and health- um, well, fed. No one is dying of starvation here but you just might if you have any dietary restrictions, but we can save that for a different post.

An On Campus Experience

May 2, 2019May 31, 2019 by lernkern48 ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Living on North Central College’s campus is a pretty wild time. The dorms on campus are truly something else… and not in the best way.

I would describe the dorms at North Central as an average to below average experience.When I was a freshman, I lived in Rall Residence Hall, an all girls, first year dorm, and let me tell you, I suffered, was traumatized, but made it out in one piece (barely).

Rall holds a special little corner in my heart. From that ugly pit, I am able to reminisce with friends on the terrible things we went through together. A majority of the time, one of the toilets on my wing was always flooding with water (I think it was water). Our floor was the only floor with a bathtub, which, no one ever dared to take a real bath in.

This dorm carried a weird smell to it. There was always a combination of body oder, dirty laundry, alcohol and occasionally weed, hidden in a mask of Febreze and cheap Victoria’s Secret perfume. The walls in this place are thin cinder blocks that allow your neighbors to hear your every move.

As a current sophomore, I have graduated to a little bit larger, cinder block room (but the walls are still incredibly thing), Patterson Residence Hall. The bathroom situation is also a bit better. It is a community bathroom that has one toilet that occasionally leaks. Occasionally! This dorm usually smells like food or body oder so I think people have grown up and learned how to hide their alcohol and weed better.

Overall, my living experience on campus has been a bit gross. It’s really roughing it compared to living at home but I find that it builds character. I look forward to moving out of Patterson at the end of the term and moving on to a hopefully nicer dorm. But we shall see. Fingers crossed!

All pictures depicting life in Patterson Residence Hall.

3 Percent Raise in Bullshit

April 29, 2019May 31, 2019 by lernkern48 ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

North Central College has decided to increase tuition by 3% in the upcoming 2019-2020 school year. I’m no math expert, but I am in debt, so any increase for me is an increase too high. In an email president Hammond sent to the whole student body, he said, “…full time undergraduate tuition will increase to $39,860,” as compared to the 2018-2019 tuition rate of $38,700.

Some people say that the food has gotten better on campus and to certain extent, I would agree with that statement. Kaufman Dining Hall has definitely improved, however every other eating place on campus is still shit. I mean…people still get food poisoning from Freshens and someone recently told me there is plastic on the pizzas at The Cage.

Most students seem a little confused as to why this increase will take place. The email seems to be vague in its reasoning. The board wants to “advance the quality and reputation of North Central College.” What the fuck does that even mean? That statement alone gives me diddly squat as to what my money is going to be used for. What kind of bullshit reasoning is this? And why does North Central College having a better reputation cost me real money?

If I knew where my 3% tuition increase was going, then I probably would feel a lot better about it. It’s been rumored that President Hammond has a Tesla so maybe that’s where my money went. That or the apparent $50,000 pay raise he gave himself…but who knows I could be way off.

The man, the myth, the legend, president Troy Hammond, standing tall as he helps college students obtain more debt.

Naperville Kind of Sucks

April 24, 2019May 29, 2019 by lernkern48 ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

North Central College is placed in the “perfect” college town. Naperville. The reputation of this large ass city of 147,682 people, is that it is like living in a “bubble.” It is safe and protected from all the scary things in the outside world like flavored food and diversity. Naperville, in itself, is dominated by white people and their privilege. With about 82% of the city being white and the average household income of $65,000, people of Naperville are definitely “sittin’ pretty.”

Now I grew up in Naperville. I moved from Virginia to Naperville when I was in fifth grade so I do understand a life outside the bubble I currently live in. For now though, I am going to tell you what it’s like inside the bubble.

I will simply start with: Naperville isn’t the friendliest place when it comes to strangers. When my family and I moved in, you would think that the courteous thing to do as a neighbor would be to introduce yourself to the new people in town. That didn’t happen. I still don’t know the first names of my neighbors and I’m afraid that it’s too late to ask.

The new neighbors don’t know my family and I either. There was one instance where my next-door neighbor found a lost dog. She thought the dog was ours and acted as if she was some grand heroine bringing our little puppy home. She knocked on our door saying that she found our dog while she was on a walk and that we must have been so worried. Cue to our dog walking towards the open door to see what was going on. You could tell she was super embarrassed, so we graced her with the knowledge that she found her other neighbors’ dog. Better luck next time!

In addition to “Napervillians” not being the friendliest, they are also very stuck up. Naperville is a “trendy” area where brands matter. If your closet isn’t 50% brand name than you’re going to get eaten by the vicious, judgmental wolves, already prepared to pounce on your body. Naperville people believe that brand names are the ONLY way to live and if you can’t keep up with that then you won’t fit in. Brands represent status. If you wear brands, than you have money and if you have money, you have social power. It’s a pretty terrible type of environment to live in because as a college student, I can not afford these brand name items and I do not enjoy feeling like I am less than because of it.

Sometimes I do not understand why people believe North Central College is located in a great college town. Sure it has a lot of places to eat (that are chain restaurants), places to shop (that are way overpriced), and a beautiful river walk (that is man-made and blocked off half of the time because it’s flooded), but there is nothing particularly special about the town that NCC is placed in. It’s an overcrowded, expensive area run by white people and their annoying high school and middle school children.

Fortunately, Naperville is ranked one of the top safest city’s to live in but unfortunately, Naperville is also home to people committing suicide because of the stress level and pressure that the education system has crafted. It’s saddening to me that this district places more of an emphasis on pushing kids to go to ivy leagues by running them down with work, than overall health and wellness. But that’s Naperville for ya.

All in all, Naperville can be the perfect place to raise a family, get an education and be a contributing member of the community, but there are many downfalls to living in this area. The Naperville bubble isn’t at all perfect and it’s time that everyone stops acting like it is.

Racist If You Ask Me

April 17, 2019May 29, 2019 by lernkern48 ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

North Central College is a “liberal arts college” that carries a liberal feel when you see the campus at a glance. Generally, when you talk to people on campus, they are warm and welcoming with a left wing outlook. They have that adorably positive attitude that you would expect out of Millennials and Generation Z.

This goes with staff members as well. Many of them seem to be aggressively liberal, voicing their opinions about Trump, queer rights and equality. The environment of this campus is supposedly an open and safe space for those of all ethnicities, genders, sexualities and identities.

Supposedly.

There have been instances of harsh racism towards black students going around the 2019 Spring Term and unfortunately, the school is not equipped to handle these incidences. Their idea of making everything “better” is by sending out a mass email telling the students what the problem was and that it’s a big no no. But let’s be real, no one reads those long for shit emails.

Sure, there are meetings held for discussion about biases that go around campus, but it’s only the people that are being discriminated against who actually go to these meetings! It’s like preaching to the choir. In addition, the NCC administration dealing with what has occurred are primarily all white men of power! It’s sickening.

From what I have first handedly witnessed, this institution treats racial bias instances as if they are an after thought. Not much energy or progress has been made to make sure that students TRULY feel safe in their community. You can’t just give a slap on the wrist for something that deserves a punch to the face.

I think that North Central College needs to get their shit together and know the appropriate way deal with racism. Have more open discussions with people in positions of power at the school. Have discussions in classrooms. Train professors and coaches on how to recognize racism and be a strong discipliners when they see it occur. Teach everyone to acknowledge when a microaggresssion is taking place and how that it is inappropriate. Put funding into organizations that educate students and faculty about racial issues.

These are only a few steps that North Central College could make an effort in walking in and my hopes are that they will do so soon before it really blows up right in their faces.

An Excellence In Being “OK”

April 10, 2019May 31, 2019 by lernkern48 ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

North Central College or “NCC” as many call it, is a small liberal arts college located in a large suburb outside of Chicago. Originally named North-Western College, this institution decided to rename itself in 1870 because it was always confused with Northwestern University. Once people realized they weren’t applying to a prestigious D1 university (and were applying to a small college approximately a mile and a half long), they did not have a favorable opinion of North-Western College. Thus came, North Central College!

With about 3,000 undergrads a year and only 70 majors, North Central College has fooled many generations into giving them money. To go here, it costs a whopping $51,496and if you actually pay that ticket price, this school played you on a whole new level.

One thing that this school prides itself on is how much financial aid they give. I will say that North Central is generous with their scholarships, being able to cut tuition approximately in half for 95% of its students. But if that many people are receiving this kind of scholarship and aid, shouldn’t they just lower the tuition price? Or would that maim their “giving” persona?

North Central College, in an overall sense, is just doable. It is definitely not the best but it is also not the bottom of the barrel. After financial aid, it’s a doable cost. The education, doable. Living on campus, doable. Living off-campus, doable but highly unfavorable. You can easily slap an “OK” label all over this school.

On the main page of North Central’s website it says, ” Ask anyone at North Central College what ‘be central’ means, and you’ll learn a lot about what it’s like to be a student here.” I am here to tell what “be central” ACTUALLY means. None of that tour guide bullshit you’ll hear. So let’s get started!

Spilling the Tea on NCC

An inside look of what it really means to "Be Central."