A lot of people tend to view Delta College as a bad school where dangerous things happen. The school has had a negative stigma attached to it for years.
Growing up, I had family members and friends that never set foot on this campus and talked about it like they had a bad experience here.
Before graduating high school, going to Delta College seemed like a bad thing as if nothing good comes from it, it was where fights break out everywhere and crimes were always being committed.
Why does Delta College have such a negative stigma?
Is it because it’s a community college located in Stockton, one of the most violent cities in the state?
The crime rate isn’t very high on the Stockton campus, which is surprising given it’s a public campus in a city with a very high crime rate.
I think the worst I’ve seen on this campus is someone getting arrested near the Science and Math Center) during my first semester.
According to Clery Act Report, the last year to have a high spike in crime was 2015, where eight cases of motor theft were recorded.
That same year, a spike of 12 drug violations were also recorded, with seven drug violations the previous year.
Drug violations and car theft were the highest committed crimes on campus recorded from 2014 up to now.
Once I graduated high school and set foot on campus, I realized Delta wasn’t all that bad.
At first, I didn’t stick around often. I would just go to my classes and head home right after like a lot of students do.
It wasn’t until my second semester I started to branch out and see what Delta has to offer, which is the opportunity and tools for students to grow and try out new things, possibly sparking a new interest in something they never considered before.
When I first came to Delta I planned on majoring in psychology, but I’ve always wanted to do something that involved writing and publishing the things I wrote.
When signing up for classes I found the school’s newspaper and after taking the class for one semester I knew I had a new major.
What’s nice is there are a lot of different classes that can accommodate just about anyone with a variety of interests, like cooking, welding and radio broadcasting.
The people that teach and even take these classes are generally really good at what they do and care deeply about the subject, at least from my experience.
I’d say one of the things I dislike about Delta is its color scheme and how long it takes for things such as pot-holes on campus parking lots to be taken care of.
Speaking of parking lots, parking can be bad some semesters, but not this one.
Other than that, I don’t have many complaints about Delta.
However, a lot of budget cuts are happening, leading to things like Danner Hall closing earlier and no longer serving lunch. I don’t think many students will like this, almost feeling driven off campus.
Classes will and have already been canceled due to low enrollment, which has been a problem for multiple semesters.
Delta College isn’t all that bad.
I’ve made great memories here and will always remember it after I’ve gone off to a university, I just hope the school can get back on its feet.
Though I wouldn’t have made these memories if I hadn’t gone out of my way to make those memories. If I stuck to doing a lot of students at Delta do, which is just going to class and leaving right after, my view of Delta College would still be negative.
It is unfortunate that Delta College has a negative stigma and that the stigma has been around for a long time. Some say its what the students make it, but it also falls on the staff too. Students need to make their voices heard and the staff needs to hear them out, taking into consideration what students have to say.
It goes both ways and from what I understand, staff members of Delta College are doing everything they can to make Delta a more satisfactory place for students.