Some of our Best Photos!

Findings...

Our goal was to find out why students thought some of the restrooms were so pleasant--especially those that are utilized by guests to to the campus--while at the same time, facilities mostly used by students are much less appealing. Our group's guess was that more time and attention were put into the popular and new facilities--such as Hagerty Lounge and The Soda Center. On the other side, we have bathrooms that we considered atrocious, such as the ones in the library and the ones found in the freshman dorms--particularly those utilized by mostly Saint Mary's students.

What we found through our interviews was that for the most part, students felt that the newly rejuvenated restrooms would be cleaner than the older restrooms. Whether or not some got more attention than the others is still up to date.

Another interesting finding was that while trying to get a deeper understanding as to what exactly made a restroom appealing for some, we found that convenience--aside from just cleanliness and functionality--played a large factor to some of the students. Whether or not the restrooms in Ferraggio Quad resemble those in the Soda Center wasn't important for those simply looking to find a convenient place to use the restroom. Others judged a restrooms appeal by location and size--concluding that the one outside of Sichel might be too creep and confining.

Our research shows that there is a lot of thought as to why some bathrooms are cleaner than others. Those in the Soda Center have the most non-student traffic so those are made the nicest. Those in the library--where mostly students dwell--don't have to be that attractive.

A next possible step would be to research the cleaning schedules of the restrooms on campus so that we can compare the raw date with student opinions and uncover the truth to the matter.

SMC Campus Restrooms - Slideshow

A closer look at some of the restrooms here at Saint Mary's College. For the most part they're all spiffy--however, there are those that do stand out.

Sabrina, Timotheos, & Joey

A group of SMC students describe their views on what makes a bathroom good, whether or not students appreciate the staff, ect.

Melissa

SMC junior Melissa Weik describes why the best bathrooms--Hagerty & Soda Center--are so clean. Are the bathrooms open to the outside community kept more clean than the ones for students only?

We interviewed Saint Mary's freshman Tashanay Spain to get her opinions on the best and the worst of the campus bathrooms. She argues that the good ones are good because they're newer--like Dryden, and the bad ones are older--like those in Augustine Hall. Bathrooms should be clean because they should be sanitary and it's appealing.

In Conclusion!

Overall this semester was quite the learning experience! The four of us, Kaleb, Victoria, Hurleen, and Lindsay, all came into this course without any prior documentary work. We learned a lot along the way, even though there were a few time where we thought we were going to completely lose it. The coolest part of this project was getting to know the employees of Cafe Louis and the students of the ESL program. By doing these projects we all saw a more intimate side to people we see on a day to day basis but rarely have any communication with. One of the more difficult task that arose during these projects was the culmination of the videos. Between the four of us, neither of us had any experience with final cut pro, which is the software we used to make our documentaries. But somehow some way we got our final projects completed and looking good! A big THANK YOU goes out to all of our interviewees! With out you guys these projects would not have been complete!

Update on the Waste Project!

For this project we are planning on focusing on the bathroom facilities. More importantly we will be looking into which facilities are cleaner on campus and why. As a group we have a sneaking suspicion bathrooms in office buildings such as Brother Jerome West, Soda Center, and Mckeon Pavilion are a lot cleaner than bathrooms that the student body frequent. We will be interviewing Michael Viola and Trinka whom are in charge of the facilities on campus. We would also interview students and get there input as well! We are excited to see what kind of information we come up with!

Pictures of ESL!

Here are the pictures from our English as a Second Language program! We are really thankful to the employees and students who helped make this project a success! We really appreciate it! Stay tuned for the video! It will be on here very soon!

Major Progress on the ESL project!

So far the ESL project is the project we have gotten the most work done for! (Wooohoo way to go Lindsay and Kaleb). We have gotten interviews, photo's taken, and also shot most of the footage for the video! We interviewed Ryan Lamberton, who is the community engagement coordinator for CILSA, he does a great job of explaining what the ESL project is and what it entails. We were also fortunate enough to get an interview with Judith Aguayo, who is a student, a Bonner leader for CILSA, and also the one who organizes and puts on the English teaching program. We also interviewed the "students" who are Sodexo and Able employees. They wished that the classes lasted longer and that they will continue taking them as long as Saint Mary's keeps offering them. We just wanted to give a big THANK YOU to all the people we interviewed, without you guys this project would not have been possible! Stay tuned for the video of this project! It'll knock your socks off!

Visit these websites if you are at all interested in English as a Second Language Programs!
www.esl.com
www.eslprograms.com

UPDATE!

Due to some major lack in communication on the parts of our contacts we have decided to make an executive decision and drop our "How Does Saint Mary's get it's beautiful reputation?" project. Even though we wanted to stay with this project it was becoming more of a hassle and burden to do so. In doing documentary work it's important to ALWAYS be truthful to yourself and the project at hand, we as a group would find it completely irresponsible to report on something that we didn't have the most accurate information on. Therefore, we will now be doing only three projects. The three projects are the English as a Second Language (video), Cafe Louis (video), and the waste project that deals with the different bathroom facilities on campus and why some are cleaner than others.

One Stressful Week!

Even though we were on spring break this week this class was still on all of our minds! Many frantic phone calls were made between the four of us... We were just unsure of where all of our projects were going. But as of today we have finally decided what four projects we will be working on! Our first project is going to deal with how Saint Mary's gets its beautiful reputation, the second project will deal with Cafe Louis and it will pay particular attention to the staff and students who use the facility, third we are going to look into the bathroom facilities on campus and try and figure out why some are nicer than others, and finally we will look at the English as a Second Language program on campus! We are all excited about these projects and finding concrete conclusions regarding them.

How Does Saint Mary's Get it 'Beautiful Campus' Reputation?

When I tell people I go to Saint Mary's the first response I usually get is "Oh Saint Mary's has such a BEAUTIFUL campus!" It is true, Saint Mary's beauty is undeniable, the white buildings and all the greenery that surround this campus only enhance this reputation. What most people even the ones that are a part of the SMC community fail to think of his how Saint Mary's gets this reputation. All the hard work to make Saint Mary's appear this beautiful falls into the hands of the landscaping crew, who usually work around the clock. We will be documenting these workers and seeing what there job entails. By documenting this we hope that the SMC community and others out there will realize that the people behind Saint Mary's beauty work incredibly hard and are sometimes left unappreciated because most of there work is done extremely early in the morning.

Above are some pictures of Saint Mary's at its best!

Hello Everyone!!!

How green is St. Mary's?

Hurleen Sidu, Kaleb Lawson, Victoria Moore, and Lindsay Swoboda are going to be exploring this questions from a perspective of a women's studies class. We are all participating in a class at St. Mary's College of California called Communication and Social Justice. Part of this class includes the development of 2 video projects, one blog, several still photos, and one book that brings everything we have learned together. These projects include an investigation into the different restrooms on campus and how they change depending on where they are located, a look into the beauty of St. Mary's and how it gets to be so beautiful, and an exploration into the world of recycling for freshman living on campus. Follow us as we discover the answers to some of our questions and explore the "greenness" of St. Mary's College.