People in everyday living face certain circumstances to which they'll either need to decide a better way to cope with or do something. We, at times, question a given situation and in questioning the situation we are either satisfied or disappointed with the results. A satisfying example would be at the beginning of the semester we were trying to decide which would be a better way to distribute the daily feedback sheets. By having it distributed by the first person in each row would be time consuming. So we decided to have it as we entered class. We were all satisfied with the results. A dissatisfying example would be the cutbacks which we fought last semester. We marched and protested, but it only resulted in us being at where we had originally started from, which is the cutbacks. Some are left unanswered. There is a large amount of money being spent on sending rockets into space. The question is why are they spending so much money up there, when there's so many things to be done down here? Why can't they help the poor and elders instead of moon projects? What's more important space programs or people in America? There are obviously no answers to these questions because there are still spending billions of dollars on moon projects.
My entries consist of situations which deals with not only my peer groups, but also my daily living situations.
Entry no. 1
Co-habitants
date: 11/4 time; 6:30 a.m.
place: dorm room
incident: cafeteria
me: Were you ever in a situation where you thought "why can't they do it another way?"
Pat: yes, this morning in the cafeteria. there are 2 sides to the cafeteria. They closed one section, but however, the dishwasher to the open side was out of order and the dishwasher on the closed side was in working order. On top of that they locked the door on the closed side and you'll need to go around to the open side to get out. So why couldn't they have done it the other way?
me: What was the other way?
Pat: To either open the side of the cafeteria where the dishwasher works or unlock the door on the closed side of the cafeteria.
me: What did you do about it?
Pat: I wrote in the suggestion box. me: Did it help?
Pat: No. And I didn't expect it to.
me: Why not?
Pat: In any given situation where you suggest to do it another way the chances o£ it getting done is very slim.
Entry no. 2
Classmate
date: 10/5
time: 10:30 a.m.
place: Webster
incident: grading for Social Work
me: Were you ever in a situation where you thought "why can't they do it another way?"
Ann: Yes, today in Social Work class. Her curve is a little too steep, I think. 95 - 100 is an A. There are 10 quizzes 10 points to each quiz. There are no make-up and also no extra credit. Majority of the class feels its too high and have discussed it with her. But we got no where. Why couldn't she have at least put it a little lower since majority of the students feels it should be lowered?
me: Did she lower it?
Ann: No, and I didn't expect her to. She was very determined to keep it that way and she also went to the dean of students and he felt it was all right despite what the class thought.
Entry no. 3
Car-mate
date: 10/9
time: 7:30 p.m.
place: driving along King Street
incident: Parking situation at Queen Kapiolani Hotel
me: Were you ever in a situation where you thought "why can't they do it another way?"
Pam: Yes, I once stayed with some friends at the Queen Kapiolani Hotel. We (all girls) went out one night and returned to the hotel at about 4:00 in the morning. The parking lot of the hotel is beneath it. There are no elevators to the lobby so we had to go around the parking lot to look for the stairway to the lobby. We didn't want to walk out into the street because it was late and we were afraid of what could have happened. There were no security guards around and it wasn't to safe there, If we had known we wouldn't have stayed out so late. We eventually found it way in the corner. There must be a much safer way, after all, this is Honolulu.
me: What did you do about 1t?
Pam: My friends and I wrote up suggestions such as to, at least, have a security guard down in the parking lot and not only in the lobby. Or even signs leading to the stairway.
me: Was anything done about it?
Pam: I don't know, I hadn't gone back there since.
Entry no. 4
Co-habitant
date: 10/4
time: 9:30 a.m.
place: Dorm room
incident: Kaleo article
Me: Were you ever in a situation where you thought "why can't they do it another way?"
Pat: Yes. In today's Kaleo there was an article about the student gov't spending $2500 on pompoms for the upcoming homecoming game. I personally think they should try to get more students to go to the games. With the money they could have tried to get more students tickets for the fans who would want to attend the game but can't pay $7.00 for one game. Why they couldn't have done it that way is beyond me.
me: What are you going to do about it?
Pat: I'm quite sure there are other students who feel the same way as I do. I'm going to write to the editor of the Kaleo.
Additional comments: There was a follow up in the next issues of Kaleo. Some students wrote and suggested what could have been done with the money, instead of the pompoms. The results of this was pompoms at the homecoming game. The pompoms were distributed in the student section and were free.
Entry no. 5
Bus-mate
date: 10/23
time: 5:30 p.m.
place: walking along Dole Street
incident: Bus route
me: Were you ever in a situation where you thought "why can't they do it another way?"
Kay: Yes when I get off of work from Zippy's, I'm usually very tired on the bus and need to walk all the way down Dole street to get to the Hale Aloha dorms. (The bus drops us off on University Avenue) I could barely make it from Zippy's to the bus stop and I have to walk down Dole Street! Also sometimes I work overtime and get back here really late, it's especially dangerous for a girl who walks alone. Why can't they have a bus route through Dole Street?
me: What did you do about it?
Kay: Well, there are quite a bit of people in the dorms who feel this way and I think they should accommodate us because we contribute a lot to the bus company. We once made up a petition and got a whole lot of signatures.
me: What happened then?
Kay: This was a year ago and from what I heard of it, they've tried it many different times. But however, nothing happened. There's still no bus through Dole Street.
Entry no. 6
Telephone mate
date: 10/6
time: 6:30 p.m.
place: balcony phone on dorm floor
incident: Transcendental Meditation
me: Were you ever in a situation where you thought "why can't they do it another way?"
Lee: Yes, yesterday at the campus center. There was an introduction lecture on Transcendental Meditation. I've got some friends who are into it and they like it. I wanted to give it a try. At the lecture I found out it'll cost me $5.00 to learn! I'd be willing to pay that much but I won't be able to pay it in full. Why couldn't they have a little sympathy for students who can't pay it in full?
me: Do you know of a way they could solve this problem?
Lee: Definitely. They could allow us to pay a little at a time. They'll still have it at the end.
me: What did you do about it?
Lee: I spoke to the lecturer and asked him. He said it depends on whose doing the teaching. Majority of the of the teachers collect in full. There are a few exceptions, though.
me: What did you do?
Lee: I haven't gotten around to it yet.
The data I collected were of all different situations of people wondering and or hoping for a better solution to a situation.
In entry #1, Pat saw it senseless to have one side open the other close, close side with operating dishwasher and open side with inoperant dishwasher. Suggestions were made but no change was made.
In entry #2 Ann felt the class curve was too steep so she and other students approached the teacher to try and reconcile on a good standard curve. No change was made however because the teacher had already made her own decisions.
In entry #3, Pam was concerned with the safety of not only herself but also for the incoming visitors of Hawaii. She had not returned there since so she's not sure if their suggestion of having more security guards helped.
In entry #4, Kaleo had an article of free pompoms to fans of the homecoming football game. There was a follow up of that article. People felt they could have used to money spent on the pompoms on something else like selling more student tickets at student prices. Results of this was free pompoms were distributed at the homecoming football game.
In entry #5, Kay was concerned with the bus route. There were petitions to sign, but the bus route remained the same.
In entry #6, Lee had hoped to learn Transcendental Meditation. It however cost too much. He went to see the lecturer about what were his chances of making payments and found out there were a few exceptions. ht the time of this interview Lee did not yet find out if he could make payments.
The results I got from the different interviews were relatively similar despite the fact that they were of entirely different situations.
The interviewees were faced with a problem and tried to cope with it by confronting or writing suggestions to the person involved and suggesting new approaches to the situation. But however, they were not always successful.
And that's how we live today. People have found themselves in many situations where they knew of some way to better it. And sometimes no matter how determined they were to change it sometimes doesn't help.
There are a lot people in society today, especially the "higher-ups" who listen to only what they want to hear and nothing else. Like my example in the introduction of the cutbacks. We, the students, were determined to fight it and tried but because there were no "higher-ups" who sympathized with us we lost. In doing this assignment I'm beginning to wonder if its worth all the time and trouble to suggest a change in a set system.