Photographic evidence/ Updates

Although many people did go home last weekend our group still did get the chance to collect some of our photographic evidence. Our evidence is compiled from two different dorms, but the mess and grime are still the same from whichever bathroom. We feel that we collected pretty good evidence of the points that we are trying to get across. The photos do a nice job of illustrating the points we have been addressing. It was good to have a meeting today with Dr. Morris so we could see what else we needed to add or what else was missing from our proposal. Our biggest issue was not really having a body for our proposal. 

Although we did take out a part of our proposal that we thought was not as relevant or as important as the other issues were dealing with. We took out our issue of the quiet hours. Our group felt that, for one, the two issues do not really relate or go together. Also we figured that the bathrooms are a way bigger issue compared to the quiet hours. Quiet hours have been an issue for so long that it seems like it will never be solved, it is college and people are never going stop being loud. We figured that this issue has already tried to be solved either by the building directors, public safety, or CA's and those attempts have not been successful. We feel that the bathrooms are something that we could make at least a difference in. 

Hopefully we can make our body of our proposal better by adding our evidence and what we have done so far, as in the conversations that we've had with some of the staff. Both of these suggestions by Dr. Morris really helped us figure out exactly what we needed in order to make sure we have all the pieces to our proposal and to make sure that we still have a chance to make a change on this issue. Our hope is to get the proposal done over the weekend or early in the following week.

New Ideas for Project 1/ Weekend activities

After reading over the first draft of our proposal we figured out some new things that we may need to revise or some more things that we could do for this project. A minor component was making our proposal a little stronger in some areas, but we ran into a more important problem. After talking with Dr. Morris we realized that we do not have any evidence. Without evidence to show how shockingly disgusting the bathrooms are all we have is our word against theirs. The people we are trying to persuade are not going to think too much of this issue if they do not realize how bad the situation is.

Our solution to this problem is to take pictures of the bathrooms over the weekend. The weekend is when the bathrooms are at their worst. They not only have residue of the things that are dealt with during the week, they also have throw up in some cases, backed- up toilets, and overflowing trash everywhere. Our group believes that if we have evidence of things such as this action will most certainly have to be taken. 

Along with the picture evidence of the bathrooms we still want to get the other points across of how gross it is to deal with issues in the bathroom such as this. Waking up on a Saturday or Sunday morning and having to either smell the trash or in some cases different substances is not fun. Also dealing with clogged or un-flushed toilets is another issue. In addition to that the showers get very unsanitary to say the least over the weekend. Our group still wants to keep these issues fresh and in the minds of the people we need to persuade.

Also on the weekends, as stated before, noise is a huge issue. People running up and down the hallways, jumping, yelling, screaming are all normal on the weekend, especially in the night hours. As much as this is expected during this time of the week we still feel that at least something or some effort should still be done. 

In conclusion, these issues are definitely prominent during the week, but I feel that on the weekends these issues are taken to the next level and get more extreme. I'm very excited and ready to start making our surveys and signs and getting our ideas out there!

Library/ Progress on Project 1

After meeting in the library today I definitely feel like I have all the tools I need in order to back up our group’s thoughts on why certain things need to change. It was very helpful today to learn more about how to navigate around the schools library website. Our group also found some very useful information that we could use to back up some of our leading arguments. We found "set in stone" rules for the university dorm policies. I felt that this would be good to have so that either our group can look back and refer to it or we could use it in order to show someone the official rules and how people are abusing them. 

In addition to finding some useful information online it was also very beneficial to talk to the librarian and get some ideas from her to see where she thinks we could take the project. She gave us some specific ideas; for example she told us that we could recommend bigger and more trashcans for our issue with the overflowing trashcans. She also told us that we need to really direct the concerns not only to the staff and the people in charge, but also to the student body. I totally agree with this statement since it is the student body that is causing most of these problems. Also Dr. Morris gave us some ideas of things that we could start doing to get a better start on the project. I thought her idea to count the number of stalls, showers, and toilets and compare that number to the number of custodians was a great idea. I was thinking that if we presented these numbers to the right people they might realize that the number is a little ridiculous and unrealistic for only a couple of custodians to clean these bathrooms every day.

After hearing some more ideas that we could use for our project we started to really buckle down on starting our proposal. Our group feels that in order to start working on some of our issues we need to get the basic things done, like starting our proposal. During our class period today we assigned different parts of the proposal to people in the group. In addition to getting a start on our proposal we are trying to set up a meeting next week with our building director. We made a list of concerns and questions to talk to her about and to see where to go from there.

Group project 1: Proposal/Setting due dates

First off I like the idea that we as a class get to pick our own due dates. I like this way better because sometimes you don't agree with the due date set by the teacher for various reasons. It could be because it might seem like there is not enough time, or it might just be unattainable. I think when the class gets to pick the due dates their can't really be any controversy because everybody knows about it and agreed on the dates in the first place. 

In addition, coming to the conclusion for the due dates was easier said than done in class today. I thought that the controversy about the due dates in class was harder to come up with because everyone has a different opinion about how fast they think things can get done. Also there is an issue of how long some of the tasks will take in order to finish the project. Some people may have more things that need accomplished compared to another group. There are just so many factors to consider when trying to agree on a due date. But I think that everyone had good ideas and had good contributions to why they thought their dates were best. I personally like the due dates that are now set in stone. I thought that it was a good idea to converse with the whole class because it made me think of some factors that I was not considering. Something that I was not considering was the more spaced out you make the due dates the better chance there is to procrastinate. Our groups original due dates were pretty spaced apart. I first thought that I needed all the time in between but I figured it is a good idea to have the due dates a little closer in order to get things done instead of waiting.

The first project, which is the proposal itself, definitely needs to be worked on until it fits the ideas exactly of what we are trying to accomplish. I think that in order to get this proposal the way we want it before the due date we as a group have to start working hard on these issues. I feel that in order to get this done we have to start talking to the right people as soon as possible. Overall, I think that our group is going in the right direction and we feel strongly about our issues so I think that we will accomplish at least some of the goals.