Push the community

Push the Texas Tech Community

I am a new international student in Texas Tech University (TTU). TTU is in Lubbock, one of small cities in Texas. Some people argue that Lubbock is the most boring city in Texas, because there is no entertainment place for people to have fun. But I don’t agree with it. There are many famous and exquisite restaurants where we can have dinner with friends, such as, Texas Roadhouse, Yuyo Restaurant, and Little Panda, etc. The most exciting thing is that, there are many amazing entertainment places in Texas Tech community. The Student Union offers us a convenient and relaxed environment to enjoy dinner; the Recreation center provides a multi-function gymnasium, where we can play basketball, badminton, table tennis and do such activities; the Leisure Pool gives us a comfortable room for swimming. Overall, Texas Tech community makes our lives more rich and colorful. However, to improve the quality of service of Texas Tech community, there are still some suggestions as follows.

The first service in the Texas Tech community which should be enhanced is the school bus service system. The school bus provides both on-campus and off-campus bus services for all TTU students. There are many TTU students living near the campus, which means that they can just walk to attend classes or some entertainment places. However, there is still a vast number of TTU students living far away from school. It seems that they can go to school every day by bus. But it is impossible for them because of the unreasonable opening time. From the Campus Bus Service website, Red Raider Route is servicing from 7:25am to 7:17pm; Double T Route is servicing from 7:10am to 6:59pm; Masked Rider Route is servicing from 7:25am to 7:21pm, etc. That is to say, the school bus won’t offer service during the night. It is really a very big problem for most of graduate students who don’t have any cars, because most graduate students will stay in the lab to do research, especially teaching assistants and research assistants. If there is no school bus during the night, they cannot return home. Therefore, this phenomenon results in the fact that most students who don’t have cars return home before the last school bus, rather than do research in their labs. This phenomenon will also result in the fact that the research progress is not fast, because many students stay at home rather than do research in the lab during night. I would like to recommend that the school bus should be servicing during the night.

The second one I would like to talk about is the opening time of the Student Union. It is well-known that Student Union has flexible spaces for TTU students to accommodate any type of meeting and enjoy the time. Furthermore, there are 22 meeting rooms located on the first and second floor, which departments can use for any type of meetings and activities. Nevertheless, there are various stores where we can buy any foods and drinks, e.g., beef hamburger, pizza, and potato chips etc. However, there is a problem. None of stores are open during the night. That is to say, the Student Union doesn’t offer food at night. Many people won’t have food during the night, but others will. Therefore, I just suggest that some stores had better offer food and drink for TTU students at night, in case some students are hungry.

The final suggestion is about the park during game day. Game day is an exciting and amazing time we can enjoy and have fun with families and friends. However, it is a disaster for some TTU students and teachers who are not interested in football, because there is not enough parking space for them to park cars. Although there are some parking spaces for students and teachers to park during game day, it is not enough. This phenomenon results in the fact that there are seldom students and teachers going to school to do research during game day. Therefore, I hope that there will be more parking spaces for TTU students and teachers in the future.

Based on the reasons mentioned above, I would tend to argue that school or relevant organizations should enhance the service quality of the school bus system, Student Union and the parking availability during the game day. I believe that with the help of the school and relevant organizations, the level of service in Texas Tech community will be improved, Texas Tech community will be better, the lives of TTU students will be more exciting and amazing.

(Yiting Dong)