The Court Street Corner
Justin D. Meyer

"If you want something done, give it to someone busy."

Many people reading this will agree that almost nearly all students complain about some aspect of their college experience. Here at Stevens, there seems to be a particular metamorphosis which includes several paths with interim stages between energetic/optimistic freshman and disinterested/pessimistic senior. Most students, faculty, and administrators blame student apathy-a lack of interest in what goes on in their environment. A few of the more insightful folks around here realize that the low-level problem is a combination of laziness, lack of support (all kinds) from the necessary levels/people, and subdued ambition/drive due to lack of incentive and goal realization potential.

What happens when one or more students desire to initiate a project? They have to present it to multiple individuals and organizations, get the support of each, work out problems and responsibility and financial issues between offices and people, solve logistical issues without simultaneous collaboration, et cetera. By the time this time-consuming "process" is completed, weeks have passed, and a significant portion of the initial effort and excitement are gone, now just burning embers of desire to try to make it to the end, if that far.

The second obstacle mentioned above may be the largest and contribute to the apparent and effective size of other obstacles: a lack of follow-through and support by administrators and sometimes faculty. I am not referring to individuals, but to the entities…many (including students) give lipservice to bettering Stevens when discussion arises, but where is the formal mechanism for doing so? To whom may students go? Support from above (administrators, faculty, and departments/schools) is necessary for the students' success in academics, and here, too, it is necessary for success. This support is the critical enabler for getting things accomplished-support, decisiveness, initiation, and buy-in from the top down.

Stevens should work with its students more to implement their solutions, and at this level we are talking about a couple of ideas per semester, not the little stuff. Some kind of formal committee (with discretionary funding or strong funding referral power) should exist to better harness students' energy and creativity as it arises. This entity should assist students in expediting the process by putting at least a few key people in the room together for a half-hour review of the proposals which have been granted an audience. And this committee should have the power to get it off the ground for students and/or professors. Just as the students' time should be utilized as efficiently as possible, so should the administrators'-well thought out and supported proposals are mandatory now and in our futures.

So far this surely sounds more like a miniature Senior Design committee, and it is, so far as elaborated herein. The fact is, while a precious few professors and administrators are soliciting ideas for their students to somehow better Stevens, much more needs to be done. In each department, one Senior Design group should be required to work on a project whose results will directly improve or benefit the students' quality of life or education. (Obviously, some majors would have a difficult time contributing due to their very nature.) With students picking their own issues, it would seem likely that students complaints would drop pretty quickly as they either solve their own problem or realize the most feasible solution is already in place.

For those not so inclined or able, and for those ideas just in their infancy, there needs to be more than just a "suggestion box." We need a repository of ideas for students (or groups of students) to review, add to, critique, and eventually choose to take ownership of and accomplish, whether by Senior Design, class project, or on their own.

Over the past year or so, I have kept a running list of ideas and problems I have encountered in my travels about campus. These projects either occurred to me as being "neat/cool/useful," have been mentioned by others as on-going problems, or have an attempted solution but failed to get started. While I have a good idea what I am talking about, I am a Materials Engineer, if you find a problem in these suggestions, do something to make it right and/or accomplish the goal, do not tell me. The most realistic ideas on the list are:

· On-line housing selection…for real.

· On-line RCRs and other paperwork…PDF format with version control and locking codes.

· Design a campus-wide card access system…why should Stevens have to pay license and maintenance fees when we can write it? This may be beyond us, but I believe a single building such as Jacobus could be used for a "proof of concept" installation.

· Create a dryer heat reclamation mechanism for the cold winter months. This could lower the campus heating oil bill a little, and possibly result in an elegant product from which households everywhere could benefit.

· A maintenance concern system open to the campus population so they can see progress and responsibility for their individual issues.

· A photo tour of campus…thorough and well organized with fluid transitions. This could be searchable by professor or lab title or department, etc. The database should be easy to update.

· Web security cams of building access points, possibly also piped to building-specific SITtv cable channels in each building. This would create student-surveyed security of high traffic and low visibility areas (elevators and most laundry rooms). In addition it would be nice to know who keeps stealing people's clothes in Tech.

· Pedestrian traffic analysis of campus. Maybe some walkways need to be moved, widened, or added next time a major repair is done. How about better placement of garbage cans and recycling containers, benches, et cetera, on campus?

We now have eight ideas for future student projects. Granted, these are probably all the level of Senior Design groups, but they range from simple to intricate and challenging. Although not research-based, implementation of some of these ideas will require effort and creativity worthy of the look, feel, and spirit of Technogenesis(© Stevens). There are, no-doubt, many more ideas out there, but now the students need a group (another committee?) to put this plan into action and set up the suggestion repository or forum. As students will be most interested in fixing what affects them directly-hence they should be harnessed for exactly that-maybe the evolving IDC or the SGA or KHODA could follow up with the administration and schools. Someone busy needs to pick up the ball from here, or it will never get done.

Sean D. Nelson, Tom J. Raynor, and Carlos A. Tafur contributed to this column.