The most annoying things about JMU

JMU is the best school and attending it was the best decision I ever made in my life and I’m sure I’m not the only one. That being said, we all know there are some very real struggles that come along with being a JMU student, so The Tab compiled a list to which I’m sure we can all relate.

Buses being full

You know the feeling: You’re standing outside of the Madison Union stop, patiently waiting for your bus, knowing full-well you’ll probably be late, and then you hear it coming and look up to see the all-too-familiar “BUS FULL, PLEASE WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE” scrolling across the electric sign on the front. You think, “please, god, let tons of people get off” and regretting your decision to take a class on east campus immediately after one on main campus. Then five or six people get off and you’re hopeful, but those hopes are quickly dashed as people push you out of the way to get in front of you yelling, “WE’VE GOT TO GET TO E-HALL BEFORE THE LINES ARE TOO LONG” and three or four of those five or six people climb back on as it turns out they were only making room for one person to get off. You sigh and wait in the cold, winter air for yet another bus to come and the same scene to play out again as you realize there’s no hope in ever getting to that class on time this semester.

The long, up-hill walk to east campus

If you can’t catch a bus, you’ve got to make the long trek up to east campus on foot. You’re huffing and puffing your way up the awful hill, pass the Hanson stop and think, “should I wait?” but ultimately decide you’ll get there faster if you walk. Passing the red light at the top of the hill you hear that familiar bus sound, turn around, and are made aware of your mistake. You should’ve waited after all, but oh well, no hope now. You won’t reach ISAT before the bus gets there for the next stop, so you just keep hiking up the hill, sad, sweaty and hating life.

The wait for a computer/printer in Carrier 

If you don’t have a printer at home, the wait for a computer in Carrier is probably the bane of your existence. You stand in line behind the sign, expecting others to have common courtesy and do the same.

You wait for five minutes: “Okay, this is taking forever.”

10 minutes: “Okay, is everyone just saving all their printing for one day a week?”

15 minutes: “They’ve got to be just browsing Facebook! There’s no way it could take this long?!”

All the while, you’re watching people circle the computers like hawks circling their prey and you’re like, “Do you not realize that there’s A LINE!”

20 minutes pass and you start to play the hawk; you ask everyone if anyone is still at the computer beside them because, as you know, people have a tendency to just leave the computers up when they’re done with them.

“Excuse me, is this computer taken?” You ask the person at the computer beside you, who is, indeed, browsing Facebook.

“Oh, no. They left like 20 minutes ago.”

“Perfect,” you think to yourself as the hatred for your polite nature (and rule following) builds up inside.

Waiting in line for food when you don’t have much time

We all have busy schedules. You know how it is: you’ve got an hour for lunch, but it’s 12:00 and you just know there’s noway you’re getting through Market One or Duke’s on time. You decide to select from the Grab-And-Go options, thinking that will be faster, but then you try to get in line and realized it’s backed all the way up to the coffee stand. You sigh and wait your turn, patiently and then the two people in front of you use credit cards and you realize you’ll be eating your food in class, not in the nice comfy dining area.

People on bikes almost running you over

I like to joke that Harrisonburg is up-hill both ways – a mixture of that and a small area where not everyone can store their cars makes for a lot of bike traffic. You’re walking down the quad on your way home after a long day and hear a whoosh as you jump to the side of the sidewalk, out of the way of the cyclist flying down the slight incline past you. You roll your eyes and trudge along, at least they swerved around you.

Falling on the bus

If you’re short like me, the struggle to reach something to grab onto to steady yourself on the bus becomes crazy real. You can’t reach the poles above you and there are tall people selfishly using the lower rails.

Then the crazy bus drivers of JMU take off at full speed ahead (well, full speed for a bus), having to slam on the breaks as someone texting and not paying attention crosses the road in front of it, and suddenly, you find yourself in a stranger’s lap.

The bookstore not having your book

Why is it that every semester the bookstore seems to be missing exactly one book for each of my classes? Do they never order enough? Do they not order them all? What’s happening here!

You get to the bookstore before the semester starts thinking, “there’s no way they’re out of books yet.” But then you get there and realize that you’re wrong yet again. So you buy all the other books and think, “I’ll just get them at the library when the time comes.”

Then it’s that time of the semester: you’ve, sadly, reached that point when you need the book you don’t have and you find out the library doesn’t have it. *Sigh* “I hope the professor’s okay with Kindle…”

Professor’s not allowing the use of laptops

You know they have a point; you’ve seen the people browsing Facebook or some online shop during class, but it doesn’t make it any less annoying that you, the student wanting to type their notes and not surf the web, aren’t allowed to use your laptop and make your life easier because some people can’t follow rules.

The stairs in front of and in ISAT

If you’ve ever gotten off the bus at ISAT, you know what I’m talking about, especially if your class was on the second floor or in HHS. The extremely annoying and daunting stack of stairs placed in front of this building are almost as annoying as the Godwin stairs, though twice as pretty.

The Godwin stairs

These are easily one of the worst parts of campus. The worst part about them is when you get on a bus, thinking it will take you to Varner, but then it takes you to Godwin Transit. You sigh, realizing your walk just got exponentially longer and decide to take the stairs. You can take them two-at-a-time, so it’s got to be faster than the hill right? Wrong. You make it up half way, taking two-at-a-time and then you simultaneously realize that you had too high aspirations and regret your life decisions. As you take the rest one-at-a-time, holding the railing so you don’t fall backwards from exhaustion, you see others walking up the hill and think, “Yeah, that would’ve been smarter.”

All the construction

It’s annoying enough that we’re made late by trains and buses, but we also have to deal with the constant construction all over JMU. Plus the noise of said construction makes it nearly impossible to hear in classrooms in buildings like Moody, right outside the construction, when they leave the windows open.

Parking on campus

Parking on any campus can be difficult, but sometimes it seems like JMU goes above and beyond to make it harder for us to park, especially the commuter lots. They took away Grace Street Parking Deck and gave it to faculty; most of the faculty spots are empty in the Warsaw Parking Deck almost every day, yet we still can’t park there until after 4:30 or on the weekend; they redid the gravel lot and, besides making it ridiculously confusing, gave half of it to residents; there’s never anywhere to park on east campus, most of those are faculty lots, too; and don’t get me started on how difficult it is to read those tiny signs from the roads to know which lot you’re driving into. Why do we even need so many faculty spots? They’re never full. They upped the price of our parking passes, then dwindled our parking spots.

Hoverers in the parking lots

Nothing bugs me more than someone hovering in a handicap spot or a no-parking-zone, waiting for me to go to my car. It’s super creepy when they slowly follow you as you walk, too, and the music from Jaws plays in your head as they slowly approach you. You know who you are, and it’s not okay. If you’re this person, JUST GO TO THE GRAVEL LOT! Thanks. Love, JMU students.

People walking impossibly slow, distracted on their phone

You know what I’m talking about: you’re racing down the sidewalk in the quad, trying to make it to your next class and suddenly your stuck behind a person walking right down the middle of the sidewalk and you have to speed walk past them to make it to class. Or a group of people are walking three or four wide and you have to run past them in the grass as they talk obnoxiously loud about something that only they care about. Single-file is a thing, guys. Remember that.

People stealing quad bricks

I just want to walk to class without falling in a hole; is that too much to ask? Apparently, to those stealing quad bricks, it is. It’s not cool, funny, or a good idea at all. Stop making our sidewalks look bad and decrepit and leave the bricks where they belong, in the ground.

Driving in Harrisonburg

I don’t know why this is, but I’ve noticed that, once people get to Harrisonburg, they suddenly forget how driving works. I’ve seen people changing lanes without so much as a glance, running red lights and almost getting hit, go at a green light when there’s clearly no room in the lane they’re trying to get to, and the list goes on and on. Please be careful driving. When you don’t pay attention, you risk not only your life, but the lives of those around you.