Good question.  The Snow Ball is coming up on Friday, but the President’s Ball is long gone.  It was over at about the same time Barefoot lost interest in the school.  Surprising correlation, huh?

If the president doesn’t care, he doesn’t get his name on things.  He would have to at least show up at the ball to get his name on it, and that is asking too much.

This won’t be news to anyone in Map Hill, but for the past two weeks, the elevator has been broken. Ever since that time known as “move-in day,” we have been carrying our suitcases, sports equipment, and laundry up and down the stairs. I’m all for taking the stairs, but seriously, what’s the point of having the elevator if it just sits there out of use?

A few days ago the RD made a big announce, and it went something like this: “Kone Elevator… completed a thorough analysis of the problem” but “the eventual diagnosis took longer than originally expected and a newly installed part did not completely solve the problem.” And here’s the kicker, “the elevator is still not operational.” Big surprise there…

However, they were nice enough to put up a sign describing the problem:

Hello Once Again. After thinking about whether or not I shall create a second entry so soon, at the risk of revealing my identity, I decided why the hell not.

Many people on these boards came to criticize Babson’s curriculum, so I’ve decided to further some comments made and topics discussed. I do believe that the Science Classes at Babson are simply repeats of high school sciences (perhaps even middle school) and that many of the liberal arts foundation courses are repeats of each other. One Class that sticks out in my mind as the epitome of Babson’s reputation, thus the source of the Almighty Hell, is the Devil formerly known as FME, or to the students as F-ME.

Long ago, back in the days of the covered wagon and when the Yankees were winning in the postseason, when the “potential freshmen” would tour Babson, it was explained to them that FME is why Babson is above other schools. FME seems to be the “life changing experience” that puts Babson ahead of any other business school. Well, one students take FME they can realize how badly mistaken they were at that time. Here’s why:

FME is a waste of in class time. It is simply going over programs like Excel, Access and perhaps even PowerPoint (might as well be Rybolt’s class) and the exams are comprised of problems with databases and basic accounting. Granted accounting is important in a business, but is IT really deserving of 50% of the FME cirriculum??? Now if you have horrible professors (mine never gave above a B+) then the problems are exacerbated.

Now I will go into the FME business. This “demi-god” is bestowed upon us by the administration and hyped up to be one of the biggest deals on Earth, when in all reality, all of that extra work is worth just over A THIRD of a class. We have to take 4 2/3 classes on top of this business, but social life’s are stunted and so is happiness because of the constant work involved in FME businesses, especially as officers. The fact that Babson is known for sadistic workloads does not help the students cause anyway.

Here is why the businesses are overrated. One is that when you are working, you cannot choose who you want to be in the business with (limited to class) and what the ideas are for the business. Some of the business ideas only make it through because of personal popularity rather than actual logistical merit, and good ideas are thrown out. And you are often in the business with 10-20 people that really don’t care about the business either, making it counter-productive. A better idea would be to let the kids in the grade form arbitrary groups of 30 and then come up with business ideas.

Sometimes this school makes me wonder why I even bother getting up in the morning, when I’m just going to face Babson every single day. I also wonder why I’m not an alcoholic.

Hello fellow community. I write to you in hopes that the changes brought out by this message will reach you as well as incoming students. The first issue amongst this school is the lack of money management. I’m sure you’re aware of the locks in Map Hill and Park Manor North. The “really high tech” ones that lock you out if you leave the door alone, and without your onecard leads to a long wait for your roomate or a call to Babo. These annoying locks are not only unnecessary, but over priced. Market value of locks like these range from $700-900 each. And Babson is considering using these locks in all dorms. Could you imagine how much money it would cost to fund all 15 or so dorms??? And where is that money coming from??? The money would be better spent on an exterminator to eliminate all of the rats in Forest, or better (or more) bathrooms/showers for the dorms, or even they could lower tuition.

Another problem with this school and money is the fact that Babson flat out extorts us out of money, and because they are a business entity and we are “lowly worms” they can get away with it. For example, one student I know moved from a triple to a double, literally 3-4 rooms down the hall (on the same floor of the same dorm building) and was hit with a $350 bill for the move…This makes as much sense as Beowulf having sex with Robert Fulton at the first Battle of Antietam. Another student moved from one dorm to another one (with Air Conditioning) and was hit with a $400-$500 bill, in which the A/C was only on for about a week longer (then they shut it off). I wonder how much they charge an hour to have Air Conditioned Dorms.

Another idea on how to improve Babson would be to have students return on Sundays, or on weekends, instead of during the middle of the week. The current plan disables many parents from going with the students (because of their work, and you’d think a business school would take that into account) and, in turn for having these few “free days”, we are punished with the Friday class at the end of the week. Now returning on weekends would save a day and not cost anybody wasted time/energy, and we’d save the Friday for whatever students do on Fridays.

Have you ever had a moment where you find yourself in A&H and in order to make a connection to a class of young students, a Liberal Arts professor tries to use business lingo and it just ends up being awkward and having nothing to really do with anything?

I have. Trust me, stick to literature.

I don’t like mixing Liberal Arts with Business, that is what OB/TOM is supposed to do, incorporate people with business, but the students have such a poor attitude towards the course that most of us fail to realize the importance of OB/TOM. Yes students, I said the IMPORTANCE of OB/TOM, and no, I wasn’t wasted when I wrote this. I think a lot of this is due to the fact that the course not only ends before the semester is over but is only 2 credits. OB/TOM is a practice of what really happens in the work place w/ people, not just balance and income statements…Babson students don’t graduate to work with other entrepreneurs just like them, we are thrown into the mix of Emerson, Harvard, UMASS, Darthmouth MassBay, Wellesley, Bentley etc. (and those are just limited to our region) and we do not all think alike and crave to achieve the bottom line so classes like OB/TOM, as ridiculous as they seem clue is into the fact that the workplace is indeed DIVERSE!

And if the faculty is listening, I propose that we change part of the curriculum, especially for transfers because I came to Babson literate, and after transferring and having to revert to Freshman courses during my Sophomore year, I found Rhetoric B far more redundant than useful. On top of that, somehow I was allowed by my advisor to take H&S, A&H, and Rhetoric A at the same time on top of a Law Elective, MOB and QTM Honors (b/c it fit in my schedule and yes…I got an A in Calc but Minitab is a whole other world to me, SHOUT-OUT to my lab partner who literally carried me on his back throughout the semester, I owe part of my Babson degree to you, kid! RESPECT! U.N.I.T.Y.)…I had no idea what a tremendously suffocating workload that would be. Office of Academic Services, help me out. And yes, I did go to your advising hours. Being a transfer sucked, no one wants to be a Freshman twice.

If you are saying to yourself, “why is this girl bitching again…” here are some suggestions for the curriculum. Let Professor Philips continue to do his thing b/c he’s the shit ( that means AMAZING for the faculty and staff that read this) BUT..as for E-tech, Environmental Tech, etc., replace all that crap that we already learned in Physical Science in 7th grade with something usefull like a required Web-tech class or ENGINEERING! Partner with Olin? Integrate?

Look at the market Babson, the lattest trend has been CONNECTIVITY. And yes, I do realize that you have cross-registration but not everyone has the means to commute to other schools. Also, please look into consolidating your Foundation Liberal Arts. I would also like to out Professor Goldberg at this moment for another outstanding job with our Liberal Arts program for any underclassmen reading this and looking for Advanced Liberal Art Classes that will change your life. I am very thankful that I transferred in most of my Liberal Arts Curriculum, I think Babson has the opportunity to strengthen their curriculum here.
This blog is how is also how I plan to help, I can’t really do anything else during the day b/c if I miss more than 2 classes due to Babson’s attendance policy, my grades will go gown a partial letter grade. I did obsess about grades before Babson, as I believe all of us did at one point, but BABSON – WEIGHING DOWN OUR G.P.A. is not cool – check out Harvard, they give out A’s and B’s like free condoms from Health Services.
And if you are then asking, what else do I do in my time? I work so I can afford to not eat at Trim. Warning, the next comment is not for the faint-hearted. I don’t understand how Trim gives me the shits everytime I go. Anyone agree or disagree? I would love the community’s feedback.

And for all that have told me, “you don’t know what Babson unless you went through FME,” ONE BABSON BITCHES, transfers are people too.

2007, Love.

Last week I had to laugh when I saw an email from OCL – it said all returning Map Hill residents would have to stop in at OCL and have their cards reverified or something like that.  The first reason was that I knew the email would get lost in all the other Babson Ugrad emails, leading to an angry rampage from returning students.

But the second reason was a bit more personal…

See, I was back on campus nice and early this year for Winter Session.  The first problem is that classes started at 9 am on January 3rd, the same day the college opened (that’s right, you can’t stay overnight January 2nd.)  So what were out-of-state students supposed to do?

I drove about 10 hours on the 2nd hoping I could sneak into my room somehow later in the day, but I could not even get in the building.  So I left and found someone I knew to stay with for the night (which was alright, except I didn’t want to leave my car filled with thousands of dollars worth of stuff out on the street in freezing cold temperatures.)

So I came back at 7 am on the 3rd, hoping to get right into my room, unpack, and take a shower before class.  That would have been nice, but things don’t happen so easily when OCL is involved…

I got into Map Hill, but my card did not work on my door!  That made me wonder what OCL meant when they said “You’re all set to live in Map Hill for Winter Session.”  It must have meant something like “we’ll take your $500 now and once you come back we’ll see if we can get you in a room.”

So I waited until about 8:35 when OCL opened and went to find out what the problem was.  It turns out my card “expired” on December 17.  How convenient…

I’ll spare you the agony, but I waited at OCL and ran back to my dorm a couple times before they finally got my card working properly.  Once I got into my room, it was already 9:18, so I had to leave right away to go sit in class for 5 hours.

As I sat in class, I just kept wondering why my card hadn’t been updated beforehand, why OCL does not know what they’re doing, and whether or not there would be any hot water for me to take a shower later.

Just another day in the life of a Babson student…

[And if you're wondering about the hot water, the answer was no.  When you pay for winter session housing, you get the privilege of staying in a dorm room.  You do not get heat or hot water.]

my biggest concern about babson is the lack of any real diversity on campus. and no, i’m not talking about racial diversity. i know i’ll be debated by this but i think this school is seriously lacking in economic diversity. if you think it doesn’t matter – look at the difference between a rich white kid and a poor white kid, or a rich black kid and a poor black kid. i propose that the rich white kid and the rich black kid have more in common then they do with their less fortunate counterparts.

take a walk through our parking lots – count the benz, bmws and audis. (full disclosure: i drive a camry – with a hole in the bumper.) i’m not trying to hate on anyone with a good car – believe me, i’m jealous and wouldn’t turn down a ride. i’m just concerned about the future of babson if it is made up of (mostly) well off students. if babson truly wants to become a world class business school then it desperately needs to start attracting more students from the middle and low income classes.

why do i feel that this is important?

if this school is largely made up of students from high income families, then most ideas coming out of babson will be directed towards … high income consumers. now that’s all well and good, but there are millions of business ideas out there that don’t cater to the affluent.

i’m not trying to hate on anybody that has their eyes set on the luxury goods market (props to anyone that tries to start something, regardless of what you sell.) but really – is the best babson can do? i want babson to foster more innovative businesses who are focused on consumers outside of this wellesley bubble that we live in. i want to see more nonprofits, more socially conscious businesses. i want to see fme companies using their community service requirements by pairing with hatchery businesses. there are people at babson that are doing just this – putting their high priced education to help less fortunate people, but (maybe its just me) these people seem to be few and far between.

i’m not saying that low and middle class kids will always come up with altruistic business plans – they can be just as selfish as rich kids can be. and i’m not saying that rich kids can’t come up with an altruistic business plans either. i’m just saying that if we don’t have those low and middle class kids in our fme classes and what not, we’ll never hear their voice. if we never hear their voice then we’ll never get the best education possible. you did pay a first rate tuition for a first rate education, right?

i have no idea how possible this is with college located in wellesley, mass. i know that babson’s current financial status is … how to put it nicely? … distressed? (exhibit a: how many alums support our school? i come from a private high school where 50% of alums give money every year.) it might take 10, 20, 50 years to correct these diversity issues that i think hinder babson (and if you disagree – lets get a conversation going then.) that’s okay. but for the love of god, i hope someone in this institution is doing something to help get it started: increasing our need blind admission rates, offering tuition reductions for low income families – whatever it takes.

anyway, that’s my major problem with babson. now for something that can actually change babson while i’m still here. maybe.

it’s pretty much universally agreed on that babson’s social scene is lackluster at best. the best thing you can do here is leave. boston is a great city, but it’s expensive to park, to pay for taxis, and hell – the t stops way too early for a proper night out. babson really should get a much better bus system going. look at wellesley, they bus students to harvard and mit routinely. though it’s true that they have a billion in the bank, i can’t imagine that it would cost that much to rent a school bus one or two nights a week and have it drive around boston on a predetermined route. hell, i’d even pay for a ride if i knew that it’d pick me up when the bars close.

yes, this can be considered a drain on the social life on our campus if we just bus everyone off campus – but having more options is almost guaranteed to produce happier students. and barefoot (are you even listening?) – happier students will donate more.

just to close, i strongly support crapcampus as a forum for babson students to express themselves publicly about babson’s flaws (and benefits, as well.)

anyway, thanks for reading this long winded diatribe, my sincere apologies if i offended anyone,

fire barefoot