Dan Gliot

As I was reading this wonderful publication’s online edition, I ran into an interesting blog called the Commuter Diaries. This is where one of the approximately 16,000 commuter students at Oakland University tell their stories of how they get to school and the cool things to do in their hometown. As I started to read a few of the diaries, I came up with this question: why are we so proud of the fact that we are a commuter school?

You see, I live on campus. Yes, I did say that. I am one of the few students at Oakland University who actually lives on campus. I asked myself that question because I’m not a fan of you commuters. To show why I dislike commuters I will give you my own “resident” diary.

I commute from … The Student Apartments.

Every morning I wake up in my beautiful four-bedroom apartment located on the campus of Oakland University. My commute to class is pretty simple. I pull out of the apartment parking lot and I’m already by Vandenburg. Although it takes me a total of one minute to get to Vandenburg, it takes another 10 minutes to park because I have to compete for a spot with 16,000 students who have to drive to school. You might ask why I drive? I have to drive because I have baseball practice at noon and would be late if I tried to walk the 20 minutes it takes to get there in usually sub freezing weather.

If you want to go to somewhere fun to eat on campus you could try the Oakland Center. I wouldn’t recommend it, however, because between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. it’s mobbed by droves of commuters. Don’t bother trying to go to Subway during lunch. The line is usually around the corner full of people trying to get a quick bite between their one class and leaving for home.

My suggestion would be the little known secret called the cafeteria (also known as the caf). If a commuter could tell me where the caf is I would give them a dollar (not really so don’t ask). It’s all you can eat with a wide variety of selections from pizza and hamburgers to turkey and vegetarian dishes. If you can find someone who lives on campus they will most likely say that they don’t like the caf.  There is no way of finding good food on the weekend. The OC is not an option except for Subway in the express window and the caf only has a brunch which is awful because probably only 100 kids go through there on Saturday or Sunday.

Fun things to do on campus? Since the majority of students are not on campus after 4 o’clock unless they have a night class, there isn’t anything to do. You can go to basketball games, which I attend regularly. I even attend girl’s games … I know it’s shocking! Once again, very few commuters show up for the games so it’s always the same people in attendance. There are about 18,000 students at Oakland and the men’s basketball team only averages about 4,000 people per game. That’s pretty sad.

Don’t even bother trying to find someone to date. Since no one is on campus at consistent times, it’s impossible to see the same person every day. Everyone sits with friends in the OC so striking up any type of meaningful conversation would involve a minor miracle.  If you want to find a date at Oakland with someone new, I would suggest stalking them because that will be the only way you’re going to get information about them (not really though because that’s illegal). Unless you meet someone in class, you are out of luck.

Do I dislike all commuters? No, I don’t. Some of my best friends at Oakland are commuters so it’s not like you’re bad people. And I understand that living on campus is sometimes just out of the question financially for some people. My problem lies in the fact that there is no atmosphere at Oakland. With everyone leaving so early the culture at Oakland has come down to this — no parking, the OC is too busy during lunch and no one comes to activities if they are held at night. That is not the kind of school any of us want to be a part of.

All I’m saying is maybe don’t go straight home after class, and eat dinner in the caf once a week. Attending a basketball game on a weekday would go a long way. Not only will you have a greater college experience by doing more activities and meeting new people, you will force the administration to look at expanding Oakland, adding more places to eat and places for activities like a bowling alley or anything else you can think of. All it takes is a little more time away from home or work and some more time at Oakland.