Although simply over two miles aside, the Homewood and Mt. Vernon campuses really feel vastly totally different. College students on the Peabody Institute describe feeling like an afterthought of the College, with unreliable transportation and restricted scholar services. In interviews with The Information-Letter, college students detailed their experiences this previous semester.
Forgotten campus
College students described the assorted challenges they’ve skilled at Peabody,
Senior Caroline Lacy, a Peabody and Homewood twin diploma scholar, asserted that the College ought to direct extra consideration and help in direction of the Peabody Institute.
“It has at all times felt like Peabody college students are handled like second-class residents in comparison with these on Homewood Campus,” she stated.
Lacy recalled that she and different college students had communicated with the College administration concerning the 23 credit per semester restrict the College beforehand tried to set on twin diploma college students. She acknowledged that the cap made it unattainable for college students to graduate on time.
“It simply goes to indicate that the administration provides so little thought to Peabody that they genuinely didn’t perceive why this was an issue as a result of they didn’t know the credit score quantities required for a mean Peabody semester,” Lacy stated.
In an electronic mail to The Information-Letter, sophomore Jordan Amato agreed that the College stays thoughtless of twin diploma college students. She contacted the College administration final semester about harsher COVID-19 regulations for Peabody college students, which made it troublesome for first-year twin diploma college students to be a part of each Peabody and Homewood communities. She was dissatisfied with its lack of motion afterward.
In her electronic mail, Rosen acknowledged the significance of scholar life at Peabody and acknowledged that the College is working with companions to enhance the coed expertise.
“Peabody is making a campus grasp plan, trying holistically at scholar life wants together with campus dwelling, eating and general programmatic area,” she wrote.
Lacy additionally raised to query the truth that many scholar sources such because the Pupil Well being and Wellness Heart and the Rec Heart solely exist on the Homewood Campus and that there are not any ample substitutes on the Peabody campus.
Rosen replied that the College has lately relocated Peabody’s health middle to a bigger and extra handy area, and renovations together with new tools are deliberate. She added that the expanded Ralph S. O’Connor Center for Recreation and Well-Being at Homewood can be free to Peabody college students, in addition to various digital providers to make Homewood’s services extra accessible to college students on different campuses.
With reference to well being services, she defined that the Pupil Well being and Wellness Heart offers tele-medicine appointments relying on the character of concern. The Homewood Counseling Heart conducts preliminary consultations just about and affords each in-person and teletherapy appointments. Rosen additionally inspired Peabody college students to make the most of digital providers reminiscent of TimelyCare and SilverCloud.
Transportation
College students at Peabody can take courses and be part of scholar organizations at Homewood and, partially as a result of lack of comparable services in Mt. Vernon, all Peabody college students want entry to the Homewood campus. When issues occur with the Johns Hopkins Medical Institute (JHMI) Shuttle connecting the Homewood, Peabody and med campuses, Peabody college students really feel the impression.
Lacy allocates no less than half an hour between Peabody and Homewood courses to guarantee that she has sufficient time to make the journey.
“The largest downside for me has been the bus system, which I — together with many others — closely depend on to get to courses and rehearsals,” she stated. “Because of the inconsistency of the bus schedule, I’m typically late or pressured to spend my very own cash to take a scooter or an Uber to class.”
Amato equally expressed frustration with the shuttle’s inconsistent hours, noting the stress it added to her each day life.
“On condition that dual-degree college students usually take 25 credit per semester, I can inform you that we don’t have the time to be inconvenienced by transportation,” she wrote. “There nonetheless aren’t sufficient buses, and the bus drivers don’t comply with the schedule completely. In a really perfect world, buses would come each ten minutes.”
Sophomore Tong Wu, additionally a twin diploma scholar, agreed that the sporadic arrival of shuttles may cause complications. Wu talked about utilizing the Attraction Metropolis Circulator Purple Route instead.
In an electronic mail to The Information-Letter, Director of Media Relations Jill Rosen defined that the present JHMI Shuttle schedule is nearly equivalent to pre-pandemic schedules with a comparable variety of complete journeys. She added that the Blue Jay Shuttle Night time Journey service had merged service areas for Homewood and Peabody throughout the pandemic and that the College plans to maintain them merged in order that Peabody college students have a further approach to journey to and from Homewood within the evenings.
Eating & Amenities
College students moreover reported unsatisfactory meals as a part of their issues. Wu and plenty of college students agreed that they had been dissatisfied with the lack of variety of the meals supplied compared to the Fresh Food Cafe (FFC) and Nolan’s, positioned on the Homewood Campus.
“There are a lot fewer choices when it comes to desserts, fruits and what’s supplied on the salad bar. There’s additionally no wok station at Peabody. Nonetheless, generally Peabody affords actually nice meals, even higher than Nolan’s or FFC,” he stated. “Usually, I might say the standard of the meals is kind of unstable.”
Amato defined that she finally ends up consuming the identical three meals nearly day by day.
“It’s typically hamburger or green-looking rooster and fries, salad and both spicy or bland beans with rice,“ she wrote. “Plenty of my pals have stopped consuming on the Peabody Cafe, and nearly at all times eat at FFC or Nolans as a substitute. It’s not essentially as a result of [our] meals is worse high quality, however as a substitute that there are far much less choices.”
In response, Rosen acknowledged that the College continues to work with the eating vendor Bon Appetit to create extra menu choices at Peabody and supply college students with flexibility to fulfill their dietary wants.
“This spring there can be a seasonal refresh of the menus. Eating Companies can be collaborating with Peabody on the grasp plan. With the transition to self-operated eating providers, we proceed to enhance the general eating program, together with an enhanced deal with culinary innovation and sustainability,” she wrote.
