You push and shove your way down the dreaded hallway of Science II. It’s 3:26 p.m. In four minutes you will be late for biology lab. There is nothing you can do. You shuffle and sway with the crowd, all the while continuing to trudge forward.

Straight ahead of you, an idiot pledge is lugging a gigantic crest, his fraternity’s symbol, which he proudly chained to his chest. As if the halls weren’t crowded enough. You scowl and move your book bag to shield yourself from the impact of the hit. All the while you wonder, “Where did all these people come from?”

It seems that only last semester there were far fewer people crowding the halls of Binghamton University. And now, with the newly beer-baptized freshman class here, it looks as though campus is becoming more packed than ever. Needless to say, this overcrowding situation is creating discomfort for many students.

Perhaps the places most affected by this population increase are the campus dining halls. It is impossible to purchase anything without inadvertently becoming stuck in a line, and the average waiting time for Sodexho’s mystery goo of the day is about 15 minutes. Arriving an hour before closing means no meat on your sandwich, or no lettuce in your salad. Oh, and Appalachian ran out of balsamic vinaigrette on the third day of classes.

Unfortunately, even classrooms are becoming cramped. With course requirements to complete and too few sections, more and more students are petitioning into classes, causing them to overflow. Even the professors are feeling it … no one wants to stand in the front of a stuffy hot room talking to 300 students without knowing if a single one is listening.

Ever tried to find parking on campus? Unless you arrive at the University at seven in the morning, this is an almost impossible feat to accomplish. It has gotten to the point where the only parking spots available after 8:30 a.m. are either in Hillside or Susquehanna. I don’t know about you, but I don’t spend hundreds of dollars on gas and car maintenance to walk 30 minutes to class every morning in the piercing cold.

For a school that claims to be the most selective public university in the Northeast, Binghamton University sure is becoming overcrowded. Either freshman applicants have gotten smarter, or it’s time to raise the bar.