Commuters are forced to kill down time

It’s 12:50 pm and Sarah Tarchala has a big decision to make.  Does she walk to her car and drive back to her home in Naperville only to return in one hour, sit in the Dunham Atrium and find some way to entertain herself, or go treat the driver seat of her car like a mattress for an afternoon nap and pray that people that pass by don’t take pictures of her? This is a very typical scenario that all commuters face many times a week. 

 Campus residents see this every day: the lonely distraught commuter wandering around campus pretending like they have something to do.  Just take a stroll behind the football field in the mid afternoon and glance in a couple of cars; there are backpacks being used as pillows in every car with a diligent student waiting for their next class.  Some students are proactive and lounge on their laptop in the library or The Spot, but come on, there’s only so much “pinning” that can be done on Pinterest between classes.

When speaking to Tarchala, she said that she typically passed time between classes by, “taking advantage of the down time by doing homework so she would not have to do it at home, or just bore myself on Facebook for hours.”

Commuters are asking that the university provides more study space and more parking space.  Obviously parking is a whole other issue that will be touched on later, but the extra study space would certainly help.  Every time I peep into one the computer labs that isn’t having a class, I envision a watering hole in the middle of the African Desert with a swarm of animals fighting for seats or room at the printer.

Aurora University commuters will continue to find ways to entertain themselves between classes.  Just remember; always crack your windows when sleeping in a running car.