• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_2012-08-24_Vol78_No07_B03

The Western Carolinian Ped How By Lex Menz Co-Editor-in-Chief Moving off campus is as big of an adjustment as moving on campus was when-students were freshmen. Suddenly, - there is cooking, clean- ing, and trying to finda parking space to worry about and plan. This. guide will make life a little easier and help cause less stress. First, parking does not always have to bea headache. If you choose to become a commuter student, remember to _ register for your park- ing permit online before coming to campus. This will save you and One-Stop time and ef- fort. This year, parking passes are $84 and by _ registering online, the parking pass is mailed to whatever mailing address you desire. The $84 is charged to your student account and the pass arrives at your door after a 24-hour processing and mailing, time. However, obtain- ing a parking permit requires more leg work after Aug. 1. You must go: to the Parking Services - Office or One-Stop, both on campus buildings, to receive your pass. You may still register online, but the permit will not arrive in your mailbox. After Aug. 19, only One- Stop will have parking poe to give. - Once you have your parking pass, know the lots you where you can park! Parking Services will boot your car with - anugly orange metal . - contraption that means You cannot move until | we say so or a white fluttering ticket on your windshield that ruins any day. You might stand achance of getting the ticket dismissed thanks | to Student Government Associations Traffic Court, but it is easier and quicker to avoid tick- . ets and boots altogether. The Parking Services website has very detailed and insightful maps to make sure commuters, staff, faculty, on campus students and visitors. ~ park in the right areas every day of the week. . If you are a commuter, learn the routes of the Cat-Tran so that you can safely park in a spot that pe hte FRESHMAN SURVIVAL GUIDE August 24, 2012 BS may be a good walk- ing distarfce from your classes but is safe from tickets or boots. Ride the Cat-Tran to your classes or put on some good walking shoes for a brisk walk to breathe in that fresh mountain air. Some students frown or make jokes about the Cat-Tran, but your tu- ition fees go toward the purple buses whether you ride them or not, so enjoy and partake in the campus transportation system. There is also an - express route from the new Health and Human Sciences building to the back of the University Center this year. The route is specifically designed to get students , from the Health build- ing to main campus and back again in enough time to attend their classes on the separates campuses. If you do not want to bring your car to cam- pus at all, bicycles area plus because there are several shortcuts across campus that you cannot use with your car. Many off campus apartments designed for students, like The Summit or Rabbit Ridge, are within easy biking distance to ' both main campus and - the new Health build- ing. Also, there is the Catwalk to safely cross Highway 107. Over the. summer, a new cross- walk was built across the highway at the bottom of the hill of The Sum- mit Apartments. Now, them to cross the streets without playing the most dangerous game of tag _ ever played. . In previous years, an _ off campus shuttle ran to nearby off campus apartments on a loop every weekday. Students did not have to pay for this service, and it saved money on gas and parking permits. It was also less of a headache because you did not have to fight for park- ing spaces or arrive two hours early for class to make sure there was one left. According to Jack- son County Transit, who ran the shuttle, Western Carolina University did not renew their con- | tract, and there will be no more off campus shuttle services through the Transit. However, Don Taylor from Cat- Tran told The Western Carolinian exclusively that the Cat-Tran is now responsible for the off campus shuttle service. They will follow the same route as Jackson County Transit, stopping at the same apartment complexes, said Taylor. Dining is another huge issue for off campus: students. There are two different commuter meal - plans one can choose in _order to save on grocer- ies and washing dishes. The Commiuter Declin- ing Balance plan is $500 of DB points, which can be used at any dining location. The Commuter Block plan is 25 block meals to be used at the upstairs Courtyard - Dining Hall throughout one semester plus $374 DB points to be used anywhere. This plan is helpful in that you are still able to eat with your friends upstairs with their on campus meal. plans without using up your DB points. If you run out of points or are not interested in eating upstairs at Court- yard, there are great places to get a meal or groceries in your local community of Cullo- whee and Sylva. Until October, the Farmers Market runs every Sat- urday morning in Sylva and every Wednesday evening in Cullowhee. Get the freshest, healthi- _. est vegetables and even students can signal the | stop lights to stay red for cuts of meat, cheese and Hara; lettuce and other _ . products can be found cheaper at the Market than at stores like Food Lion or Wal-Mart. For snacks and bread - products, try the Flow- ers Baking Company next door to Raes City Grill, previously The Bone Shack. Flowers is a bakery outlet and sells products at sig- nificantly lower prices like eight Natures Own hamburger buns for $.59 and loaves of bread for under $2 each. Shoppers can also find Blue Bird snack cakes, ketchup, honey, bags of chips, pies and other goodies for their pantries. Pick upa Customer Appreciation Card for more savings. For other ways to save _ shopping at Wal-Mart on groceries, browse the websites of Food Lion and Ingles to see what is on sale then add the coupon onto your MVP or Ingles Advantage _ Card online. Try not to fall into a routine of only stopping at one grocery store or another. Wal-Mart, Food Lion, - Harolds Supermarket in Dillsboro, Ingles and Sav Mor all have differ- ent sales going on during any given day, and by save more money and to survive off cam planning ahead, you can find better deals. Ifyou _ and your yoommates, are Bs planning: on splitting the cost of groceries, is not your best choice. Food Lion and Ingles provide deals like Buy- One-Get-One-Free and _ provide more discounts on family-sized products than Wal-Mart. Now, how do you handle multiple room- mates? Several of the off campus apartments near Western Carolina are multiple roommate homes. Places like The Summit assign room- mates through potluck if you do not already have roommates lined up. Also, it is more cost ef- ficient to share the bills with a group of friends rather than try to pay _ the electricity, Internet, rent and water alone. How do you manage _ household chores for an apartment or house with several people you have never lived with or may have never met before? This may seem likea | childish activity, a task your mom might sug- gest, but the best way for a household to survive is . to create a chore assign- ment sheet. Write down all the different chores your off campus living situation requires. Is there a lawn that needs to be mowed? Will you wash yourown dishes. or will there be a single dishwashing roommate? ' Are you sharing any eae pets and whose respon- sibility is it to clean the litter box? All of these chores need to be writ- - ten down and assigned to. an individual or traded off between a group of individuals. This way, communication is opened up and from the first day, you and your ' roommates are aware of where their responsibili- ties lie. Your roommates should be held respon- sible for when a chore is not completed, as well as yourself when you forget or ignore a task. Still, remember that you are all in college and work piles up. Maybe one of your roommates is taking 18 credit hours. and has a part-time job pus living Photo by. Lex Menz/Staff The Farmer's Market is a great way to get fresh groceries at a lower price. in the evenings. Every so often she may forget to take out the trash or clean the toilet. If you. keep your eyes open and remain perceptive to other peoples feelings and schedules, you can help them during the times of mass hysteria, and they will be kind enough to help you out in return. Also, when there is _ strife in the household, do not wait for more problems to stack up until you explode or | until the last straw. Ifyou communicate and work out problems ve - as they happen, your ' roommates are less likely to continue their behavior and carry out that last straw. Stay- _ ing quiet and letting the problem simmer is only going to cause a boiling over when you feel you cannot take it anymore. Then, anger gets in- volved, feelings get hurt and you are looking try- ing to find a new home and losing the security deposit because you broke the lease agree- ment. Communicating never hurts. There are several fac- tors that go into living off campus, but with these three starters, you are on the right path to start your living on your own. Living with a verfect stranger: the 101 on roommates Logan bert Staff Writer One of the most excit- ing and often intimidat- ing parts of the college experience is roommate assignment and selec- tion. * There are no guaran- tees that you and your new, year-long live-in buddy will get along on any meaningful level. _ There are plenty of hor- ror stories found online or in magazines that might put someone off from the entire process. However, for every horror story, there are . _ dozens of long lasting friendships and relation- Ships that develop as a . result of roommate se- . lection. Much of college is about new experienc- s, and few things are more of an experience than living for the first time away from your a parents with another College-aged student. * Through online sur- veys that match stu- dents interests, hobbies and ways of living, room. assignments coordina- - tors attempt to pair students that are like minded and more likely _ to get along well. This is based on the idea that students with similar . interests will have more common ground, and this will make future disagreements less likely. The majority ' of disagreements take placeduetoagapin - understanding between the two parties. The key to havinga successful, working rela- tionship with your new roommate? Communica- tion. There are many things to learn about living with another per- son that is not a member of your family. Lots of potential disagreements can be entirely avoided with a bit of understand- ing between one another, and the only way to ob- tain that understanding is through communica- tion. Matt Short, former Resident Assistant at North Carolina State University, said that in . his experience filling out room change requests where the reason for the change was a disagree- ment with a roommate, most instances could have been avoided with a healthy dose of commu- - nication. Tn one instance, a student was never in his room for days and weeks on end and refused to tell his roommate where hed go or when hed get- ting back, Short said. Thats just inconsider- ate behavior. Being a good roommate Do: Communicate with your roommate This can be something as simple as asking what time they prefer to go to bed on weeknights, and even extends to asking if they are all right with members of the opposite sex hanging out in your room. It is important to - realize that people grow up with differing sets ot values, which makes it necessary to communi- cate on potential issues up front in order to avoid conflict later on down the road. Do: Coordinate on who will bring what In my experience, my roommate and I spoke online months before Move-In day. I brought the microwave; he brought the refrig- erator. I brought the TV; . he brought the stereo. I brought the Xbox and him the games. It worked well, and later on if we found we needed something for the room, we would buy it at Wal- Mart and split the price down the middle. As for who retained ownership of the item after the se- mester ended, that was pretty much up to who still had room in their car after packing every- thing up. Do: Discuss food buy- ing and sharing Often you and your new roommate will find it necessary to make -runs to grocery stores in order to get food. It is important that the two of you discuss if and how food bought will be shared. One solution is" to split the cost of gro- ceries and freely share _any of the food available. If you buy something on your own and spe- cifically want to eat it later, be sure to tell your roommate so they do not think it is up for grabs. Don't: Be Shady For many college fresh- men, living in a dorm is their first time living on - their own. This means they no longer need to annourice where they go and what time they get back to their parents. However, it is important to realize that while you are not accountable to your roommate, it is common courtesy to tell them where you might be and when you should be getting back. This is both a safety precaution and a consideration to your roommate, who may have plans of his/ her own that could change depending on when you get.back. Don't: Be a slob Most roommates might not be cool with hav- ing dirty clothes and dishes all over the room, especially if they like to keep things clean and tidy. Be sure to talk with them beforehand about how clean they like to keep their room. Both my roommate and I were perfectly fine with having a bit of clut- ter around, and when things got too messy we would work out a time and clean up our respec- *tive sides of the room. These.dos and donts will not guarantee you and your new room- mate will get along ~ well. However, they are simple tips for making the best of a new situa- tion. Respect, common courtesy and under- standing go quite a long way in developing and maintaining a friend- ship.

The Western Carolinian is Western Carolina University's student-run newspaper. The paper was published as the Cullowhee Yodel from 1924 to 1931 before changing its name to The Western Carolinian in 1933.

• Creator
  • Western Carolina University
• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Date
  • Date original: 2012-08-24
• Extent
  • Dimension: 22.50" x 11.5"
  • Pages: 20
• Subject - Topic
  • College student newspapers and periodicals
  • Cullowhee (N.C.) -- Newspapers
  • Universities and colleges -- North Carolina -- Cullowhee -- Newspapers
  • Western Carolina University -- Periodicals
• Location
  • Jackson County (N.C.)
  • Cullowhee (N.C.)
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Source Collection
  • WCU Students Newspapers Collection
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_2012-08-24_Vol78_No07
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library