Reporter

Students at CSU Bakersfield have some complaints about amenities on campus. But in many cases, students are unsure where to voice their complaints. In particular, many students have issues with the quality and size of the desks on campus. Since students are unsure where to go with their complaints, they have been accepting of what the school is providing in hopes that it will not raise their tuition any higher.

“I know if there’s not money there, then it’s like okay so do we raise student’s fees so we can cover it? Or do students just want to take the desks that are already there?” said senior in economics Andrew Ortega.

While the students of CSUB are dealing with the desks, they still have complaints about the way they fit in the desks and how old the desks are.

“I think I function better if I have a larger desk space because I’ll be more comfortable and I can focus instead of like ‘oh I need to know the answer to this’ while at the same time like ‘oh God I’m so uncomfortable. My back is killing me. I just want to get out of here. I feel like I’m going to pop out of the desk.’ But I just make it work because you can’t really do anything,” said Maddy Engelbrecht, a sophomore in nursing.

Christopher Sianez, a fifth year human biology student, said that the desks are good, but they’re old. He also said that while you cannot please everybody, having a bigger writing space and more space to fit in the desks would help to improve time in the classroom.

Valerie Barajas, a sophomore in communications, said that the desks in Dorothy Donahoe Hall have the most issues on campus.

“Some of them kind of squeak a lot. So basically when I go in there, some of them are written on and a little torn on the side. Some of them have gum under there,” said Barajas.

Director of Academic Operations Dr. John Dirkse has been working on providing better and safer classroom furniture for the campus. Last November about 100 old and damaged desks were removed and replaced with new and safer desks from Sierra School Equipment Company.

“The campus had been going, up until I really got into this about ten years ago, saying ‘well whatever we have clearly can last.’ Nobody thought about replacing the blinds in some rooms where they get damaged or replacing chairs that get broken or whatever. When everything’s new you don’t start thinking ‘ooh I better start thinking about replacement’ you think it’s all new and it’s going to last. Well, we’re beyond new. So when I got into this position about ten years ago I said we have to do something to start replacing some of this. Too much of this is damaged. Some of it I even judge to be unsafe. So what I started doing was having our Risk Management Office make regular inspections of the classroom furniture in every class,” said Dirkse.

Since then every few years the Risk Management Office has been inspecting the classrooms and pulling out chairs that are damaged and deemed a problem in classrooms. Dirkse has been buying new furniture in order to replace them immediately. Dirkse also inspects classrooms himself so that he is able to make sure he has the furniture needed back in the classrooms.

“I complained myself. I was a faculty member for 25 years before I moved into the administrative side. I didn’t like it either when I saw a desk that had a crack. Students have to sit on that. Somebody is going to rip their pants or dress or whatever it may be or get hurt. I would remove them myself.

“Well pretty soon I realized I can’t take too many out without putting some back in. Over time we have come to realize that we have to make some replacements and repairs.

“I started getting a few complaints, but it’s almost as if the faculty and the students sort of were tolerating it. That isn’t good. I thought they shouldn’t have to deal with it. Somebody ought to be stepping forward and doing something. So I did,” said Dirkse.

Dirkse went on to say that when a new building is constructed that the cost of the project must cover the construction as well as the furniture inside. The furniture in the new buildings came with that building, but there is no money that goes to replacing the furniture later on. Because of this, many pieces of furniture in the older buildings like the Classroom Building and DDH may have had desks from the seventies until Dirkse was able to replace them with new and better desks upon his arrival.

Dirkse continued saying that he has not heard many complaints in the last year or two, but that he hopes people do let him know what needs to be looked at on campus, as he and the staff are making major efforts to improve the campus.

He invites students who have complaints about anything concerning furniture, blinds, equipment or anything in the classroom that seems unsafe to call or email him.

Dirkse’s email is [email protected] and his office is located in the Education Building in room 240.