Above is my personal cognitive map of CSULB! During my first year here at Cal State Long Beach I have found that I have made a bit of a routine for myself and developed safe places on campus. Safe places have became my safe places due to the fact that I have spent a lot of time there and they make me feel comfortable! Of course my dorm would be a safe place but surprisingly that took a VERY long time to become somewhere that I felt at comfortable and could call it home (I still have trouble calling it home at times lol) but besides my dorm the only places that I go to on a very regular basis are the gym, the bookstore , Starbucks and the library! I added Brotman hall because I pass it multiple times a day and anytime I have a question or am worried about something that where I go! I also added the psychology building because I have had multiple classes there so far and due to the fact that I am a psych major I know I will be spending a lot more time in that building.
As boring as it may sound I would choose to adopt the library if I were to adopt a building. There’s something that is so calming about it and I actually spend a lot of time there by choice! Cal State Long Beach actually came about in in 1949 after a big population growth post WW11 and a college was needed in the southeastern Los Angeles and orange counties. It began with 169 students and one of the first buildings to be added was the library. Although at this time it was a 25’x35′ wooden structure that could only seat 48 students!! It’s crazy to thing that something SO big started out so little! When the library first began, over 1/5 of the college’s initial budget (25,000) was set aside for the director to buy books and in the first year, it had 5,508 and 250 subscriptions. Now the library holds over a million volume collections with an additional 7 million unique titles are available to students!!
When asking my friends what they think about the library they described it just as a quiet place to study and get work done and they did make fun of me a little when I said how I love going to the library! Although this may sound boring or lame, and maybe it’s just because I am a book worm who needs their time of peace and quiet but I think the library is super cool!
If I had the oppurtunity to redesign any part of the CSULB campus there are 2 things that I would want done first! I would want to add a little mini recreation center/ gym for residents between the hillside and parkside dorms! I would like to do this because for me personally, I don’t go to the gym until very late at night and sometimes I get a little creeped out walking all the way from my dorm to the Rec center ! It would be a lot more convenient if it was closer to the dorms and it would always make the Rec center a lot less busy! Sometimes there’s not even one machine open to use if you go at the wrong time where its busiest !
I would also like to add more seating both outside and inside of the library! There are only a few tables placed outside of the library and they are ALWAYS occupied ! Even inside, which offers much more seating sometimes I end up having to take a seat on the ground because there are no available seating on any of the floors ! This school is so huge and has so many students that it definitely wouldn’t hurt to maybe expand seating areas in the library !!!
summerknightmorgan 