Resources of Place

Physical:

Manhattanville College has countless resources that are accessible to all of its students to ensure that my place is safe, that its habitants are healthy, and so that they can live happily. 

First, Manhattanville’s campus safety team helps to ensure that our campus is safe. When you first arrive on campus, students are asked to show their school ID and visitors are asked to state their purpose and show appropriate identification. This procedure allows the campus safety team to know who is on campus and what their intention is. Additionally, there is always a campus safety team member on call so that students can call if there is an emergency (or non-emergency too). For certain events, campus safety members will be stationed around campus to monitor the events. 

In terms of allowing its inhabitants to lead healthy lives, 3 areas come to mind: Benzinger Hall, Kennedy Gym / Berman Gym, and SHAC. Benzinger Hall houses the cafeteria and the pub which serve as the two sources of meals for students. In the cafeteria, students have a wide range of food options (some healthier than others). Also, the food can be hit-or-miss with the quality of the food served. In the pub, students can get made-to-order hot meals, such as “chipotle” bowls and wraps as well as pre-made food and snacks, such as bagels, fruit cups, box mac-n-cheese, and candy. Although I would love to say that the food at Manhattanville College is great, I do not think that it would be an accurate assessment of the quality and healthiness of the food.

Contrary to the food, the gymnasium and workout equipment is fairly decent. Personally, I did not use this resource as much as I would have liked too, but that’s due to my laziness and not the quality of the equipment. There are two gyms on campus: Kennedy Gym where the student athletes train and then the Berman Gym where all students can exercise. From somewhere who cannot speak much about the gyms, they seem to be a great resource that allows students to be active and promotes a healthy lifestyle. 

Student Health and Counseling (SHAC) is a wonderful resource for students who are not feeling well. SHAC provides many services from giving out flu shots to giving out condoms. They also have a lot of information and services for mental health as well as physical health. All of the services are free for students, with a couple of exceptions. I have gone to SHAC for an ear infection, to get my flu shot, and as a supportive friend to my roommate suffering heatstroke. 

In terms of what this place needs, Manhattanville college needs to make some major updates and renovations. For example, the elevators in some of the buildings are very old and are becoming unreliable. The elevator in Founder’s Hall is broken more than it is working. It was for this reason that I only took the stairs to get to my 3rd floor dorm unless extenuating circumstances arose. Additionally, we need to improve the quality of the food. I do not enjoy eating crunchy pasta noodles or undercooked banana bread.

Overall, I feel that Manhattanville has a lot of resources that allow its inhabitants to lead safe and healthy lives. Of course, no place is perfect, and Manhanttanville can improve on many things to be better. Despite my complaining, I do enjoy being on campus and utilizing its resources. 

Digital: 

There are a few resources that TikTok has to ensure the safety and health of its inhabitants. First, the user has the ability to report any video that they feel violates the appropriate uses of the platform. Additionally, the user can mark videos or sounds as “not interested” to remove it from their For You page. These two options allow the users to reduce the amount of inappropriate content that appears on the platform and makes sure that they are comfortable with the videos that are coming across their For You page. By placing some control into the hands of the users, TikTok has made it so that users feel that this platform can be a safe space for them to use. 

Another feature that TikTok has in place to ensure the safety of its inhabitants is a sensitive content warning. This sensitive content warning blurs the video and warns the user that some people may find the video to be disturbing. Next, the user can make the decision to skip the video or watch it anyway. By providing this warning, TikTok has protected its users from seeing disturbing content without the user giving consent. This allows the users to make the choice if they would like to watch it. Personally, I never watch videos with this warning because you have truly no idea what type of content you are about to see. 

One feature that I have seen on TikTok to protect the health of its users is a video that tells the user that they have been scrolling for a long time and that they should take a break for a bit. I think that this feature helps protect the mental health of its users. Too much screen time and too much time on social media apps can be very damaging and toxic to one’s mental health. Additionally, if you’ve been spending too much time on TikTok, then you likely have been quite sedentary and should get some physical movement incorporated into your day as well. 

In terms of what this place needs, I think TikTok needs to provide users with the ability to remove the caption to the video. The captions are on the bottom of the screen and often cover up words or important parts of the videos. Therefore, if we had the ability to move these captions, we would have a better experience on the app.