Letter to the Editor

Austin Kennedy, Guest

Some common concerns among the majority of students that attend Los Medanos College are parking, unsanitary water conditions, unhealthy vending machines and outdated tech.. With each semester, there is a new wave of people signing up for classes and attending LMC. With LMC Brentwood being the main campus I go to, since I live in Discovery Bay, I and many others have a hard time finding parking. 

The Brentwood campus is small and can get crowded at times due to all the grocery stores and other businesses surrounding the school. During the beginning of this semester, I would find myself driving to school 15 minutes early just to make constant loops around the parking lot only to find a parking spot and have it taken from me from another student who is desperately searching for a spot. 

While the Pittsburg campus is far superior to Brentwood, Pittsburg also has some similar problems with parking. These issues for the Pittsburg campus only last for about a month after the semester starts. I think within the first couple weeks the school should allow free parking because if they gave free parking for a month, students would be able to learn more about parking and find better spots, and would spread everyone out. There should also be people directing and letting others know about different opportunities for parking.

Another concern with LMC Brentwood is the poor water quality at the campus. When you go to the water fountains to have a drink, you soon realize how awful the water is. It barely spouts out, which makes you struggle for any water. This is gross because I have seen people touch the spout with their mouths, which is unsanitary and can lead to germs being spread. 

Not only that, but the water is unfiltered and not cold. At least replace the water fountain with a purified one with a filter or the ones at the Pittsburg location.

Another concern is the poor quality of snacks in the vending machines at LMC. The LMC Brentwood vending machines do not carry any sort of healthy snacks. It’s all junk food when they should have healthy options for students. 

After attending LMC Pittsburg a lot this semester, I realized how awful the computers are for the school. Students have spent decent sums of money to get into classes and attend college just to use some older models of computers that are sometimes too slow to work.

With that money being brought into school, I don’t understand why the computer systems are so bad. They need to have more up-to-date computers or at least the ones that are a couple years old and not over 10 years old. There have been many times when I have been in class, and my professors are having technical issues simply because the technology the school district gives to the teachers is awful. Either the speakers don’t work, or the projectors are being funky and not turning on. I have even seen the computers just simply shut down and overheat in class. The lack of updated technology at LMC is hindering students learning experiences as well as professors teaching experiences without unnecessary and inappropriately timed incidents.