By: Thomas Johnson/Contributing Writer
Daniela Ustariz glances at her watch for the third time in five minutes. Clearly agitated, she stands shoulder-to-shoulder at the crowded bus stop, near the bookstore at the Modesto Madique Campus.
She’s not alone. Nearly everyone else at the bus stop has the same concerned expression and there is a constant craning of necks and scouring of the landscape.
For many students living at or near MMC, majoring in journalism or hospitality means commuting between two and three extra hours per day. In order to make it to class, students are faced with the choice of either paying $2 to ride a sometimes erratic shuttle service, or make the drive themselves and face traffic and fuel costs.
“I just don’t understand why I have to come all the way up here for one class,” said Ustariz, a senior who’s pursuing a second degree in hospitality management.
Some students believe that FIU has chosen to locate certain schools solely at the Biscayne Bay campus based on geographic reasons.
“I guess it makes sense to have the hospitality school here since it’s a lot closer to hotels and tourist hotspots than the main campus,” said Roshini Rampersaud, a former FIU student who graduated in 2009 with a degree in hospitality management.
This does not necessarily apply to other schools, though.
“I don’t see the point of having the journalism school here,” said Chris Lazaga, a senior journalism student. “I mean we’re no closer to news agencies than we would be at the other campus. It would make sense if it was located downtown because at least that way we’d be way closer to the New Times and Miami Herald buildings.”
The reasoning behind the decision to have certain majors solely at the Biscayne Bay campus in fact has nothing to do with geography, but everything to do with economics and practicality.
“Basically, we put programs here that we didn’t have space for at the Madique campus,” said Vice Provost Steven V. Moll, who has been at the Biscayne Bay campus since 1989 and has witnessed much of the campus’s transformation.
Initially, going back about 30 years, the Biscayne Bay campus had only one building, the current hospitality building, and it sat on 200 acres that were sold to the state for a nominal fee on the condition that it be used for educational purposes.
“The state basically said okay FIU, this is in your county, figure out how to do something with it,” Moll said.
Early on, the campus housed majors that are no longer there, including nursing and engineering. Now, nursing is a part of the FIU medical program at the MMC and engineering moved to Sweetwater, in a building that used to be a corporation headquarters and was bought for a “bargain basement price,” Moll said.
In the mid-80s, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication moved permanently to BBC, to become the campus’ first anchor program. The School of Hospitality Management soon followed, as did the School of Marine Science.
But why was the journalism school chosen to be BBC’s first anchor program as opposed to, say the school of business management?
“It was economically driven” Moll said. ”If you’re going to move a really huge program it means dedicating huge monetary resources to locate It up here. If you move a smaller program up here, it doesn’t cost as much.”
Ultimately it comes down to a philosophical decision – is it better to offer upper level classes for nearly all majors at both campuses, or consolidate and offer different majors at each campus?
To this point, the FIU administration has clearly chosen the latter. It is clearly more cost-efficient.
“If I had to do it all over again, I do not know if I would major in journalism and that has little to do with the subject itself,” Lazaga said. “It’s just such a huge time commitment. I work and I have to factor in about three to four hours just for commuting, even if I’m only taking one class.”
For students like Lazaga, who live less than 10 minutes from MMC, this can mean a five-hour commitment to simply attend one class at the Biscayne Campus.
There does not appear to be any plans to introduce journalism classes at the south campus.
“It’s economically not feasible,” Moll said. “You can’t have all the labs here and duplicate them at the other campus.”
But there are other schools, like hospitality management, that offer certain classes at both campuses.
“We offer our entire curriculum other than the food courses because of food labs at the Madique campus,” said Moll, who is also a professor in the school.
Some students believe that the same could be done within journalism and mass communication, as not all classes require computer labs.
“I’ve only just started using the computer rooms this year,” Lazaga said. “All the intro classes were in normal discussion rooms.”
Ultimately, it appears as though it is more likely that more lower level classes will be brought to the BBC, rather than new upper level classes being introduced at the MMC.
“I think we are under-serving the core freshman and sophomore level students that come from this part of the county from North Dade and South Broward,” Moll said.
Moll believes that technology could be the solution to commuting woes.
“What you’ll probably see is more online classes” Moll said. “More and more students are selecting online education as their preferred method of receiving their education.”
Although this may be a solution to some students, the extra $200 fee for each online course makes it a challenging option.
“I can’t pay an extra $600 to take three classes online instead,” Ustariz said. “Even if I could, only two of my classes are offered online, so it doesn’t make sense to come all the way up here for one class.”
For students like Ustariz, it appears as though the trek to BBC is one that they will have to continue to make if they are passionate about any of the Biscayne-based majors.
“You certainly don’t want to encourage students not to pursue their passion,” Moll said.
Thomas Johnson, a December 2010 journalism graduate, produced this story in the JOU 3303 Advanced News Writing course taught by Dr. Fred Blevens.
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