Transferring to Loyola has been one of the best choices that I’ve made with my “adult life.” I consider myself a lucky individual from New Orleans who has the opportunity to make it to this school. I see Loyola as a niche that some potential students overlook. The same caliber of student usually goes to larger colleges and becomes lost in the masses. We definitely pass the eyeball test when it comes down to the architecture and academics, so where are we lacking? What separates us from becoming an even better school?
I sadly have never lived on campus; I regret that now. I always lived at home or had an apartment that I paid for through a part-time job. I still am part of the student body, but not to the extent as some freshmen or students who are campus residents. I occasionally go and play soccer across the street at Tulane with friends and always notice the “beacon” that is Tulane’s LBC.
When you walk into the LBC there’s always music playing, exotic smells, daily chats on the television with members of the Hullabaloo and local news. I’ve become a little jealous. The Danna Center at Loyola obviously isn’t as glamorous to that extent, but still gets the job done for most of us.
I can definitely grin and say that Tulane doesn’t have Starbucks, because anyone who was at Loyola two years ago can also say that “hey we miss Community Coffee.” At least a local company such as CC’s gave free refills, not charge a $7 latte to the broke college students. Because of this debacle, sadly backtrack to Tulane to get $3 P.J’s coffee instead.
We definitely need to add another food choice to the Danna Center. We have an incredible group of chefs that have come to Loyola and the food here has taken a step up to the point that Tulane students now come over here for the food and yes, Starbucks. I went and tried the Gumbo, and as a local I even had to ask “how did the okra melt in my mouth?” They have definitely stepped up the quality of cooking, but I feel like we need to build more on that and maybe get those chefs, and set something up where Satchmo’s use to be.
That has become a little of an eyesore. I feel like we can build on what success we’re having with the new chefs, and maybe put another restaurant or hot plate room downstairs. We need to bring more to the Danna Center on all levels. Tulane has the Ratskeller which is open till 2 a.m., has WOW Wingery and a pool table with games on television all day. We can have that here, but it will understandably take time. I’m sure Cane’s and Jimmy John’s would love for us to give them a call, though.
The TULU card has also become a necessity for upperclassmen at Loyola. If you have any upper level history or writing courses, you will need to get a Tulane University/Loyola University reciprocal borrowing card and venture off to Tulane’s Library. Tulane really just has more books than we do because of the majors at that school. They also have more money than Loyola does, which is understandable, but this has always been the case even prior to us having a huge deficit fall on us.
The library also has had too many communication errors on their part that it’s hard to trust them sometimes. Book requests get cancelled and putting in a deadline for a book or documents has become harder because of the computer or someone messing up a date for when you need the book by. This a tedious problem, but it needs to be addressed.
I like that we’re going in the right direction with some aspects of Loyola, but we need to continue getting better. We need to communicate more and address the two essential needs to a growing college student body and that’s the food and knowledge at this campus and this campus alone.
