2008 Woodie Awards
Residence halls have much to offer students
Issue date: 10/21/05 Section: Rocket Letters
To the Editor:
Although the residence halls have some drawbacks, the positives far outweigh the negatives. By doing something more than "ranting" about the problems, you can make SRU a better place and make it nicer for future residence hall dwellers.
As you mentioned, the residence halls are a great place to make friends and meet new people. I met some of my closest friends during my first two years in the dungeon of Patterson Hall. Those friendships definitely compensate for the occasional penny jam, squeaking bed next door or an un-flushed toilet.
And if friends aren't enough, there is always something happening in your hall. They have social activities, like ice cream socials, Halloween parties and house council meetings. The house councils meet weekly to discuss ideas and concerns and for people to suggest ways to improve their hall. Instead of using your time to complain, it would be better spent at your local house council or ARHS meeting.
Residence halls are also maintenance free for you. If something breaks or gets dirty, someone else will come and fix it or clean it (except for your dirty laundry - you're on your own, but they supply you with pretty good laundry facilities). You have an information technology person in each hall to help you with computer problems. Each hall has a computer lab for you to print as much stuff as you want - free of charge. Some halls have dance rooms, billiards tables, ping-pong tables, board games and more.
If people don't abide by quiet hour rules, simply talk to your community assistant. If that doesn't solve the problem, then discuss the problem (noise and apathetic CA) with your resident director. Those people are paid (by you, the students) to enforce rules and manage the residence halls - hold them accountable.
You can also talk to your CA, RD and house council about the cleanliness of the bathrooms - if it's a "housekeeping" issue then it will be fixed. If it's an, "I don't want to clean up after myself because they pay someone else to do that" issue, then there isn't much they can do. Hopefully people on your floor will learn to take responsibility for their own mess and clean it up.
Although the residence halls have some drawbacks, the positives far outweigh the negatives. By doing something more than "ranting" about the problems, you can make SRU a better place and make it nicer for future residence hall dwellers.
As you mentioned, the residence halls are a great place to make friends and meet new people. I met some of my closest friends during my first two years in the dungeon of Patterson Hall. Those friendships definitely compensate for the occasional penny jam, squeaking bed next door or an un-flushed toilet.
And if friends aren't enough, there is always something happening in your hall. They have social activities, like ice cream socials, Halloween parties and house council meetings. The house councils meet weekly to discuss ideas and concerns and for people to suggest ways to improve their hall. Instead of using your time to complain, it would be better spent at your local house council or ARHS meeting.
Residence halls are also maintenance free for you. If something breaks or gets dirty, someone else will come and fix it or clean it (except for your dirty laundry - you're on your own, but they supply you with pretty good laundry facilities). You have an information technology person in each hall to help you with computer problems. Each hall has a computer lab for you to print as much stuff as you want - free of charge. Some halls have dance rooms, billiards tables, ping-pong tables, board games and more.
If people don't abide by quiet hour rules, simply talk to your community assistant. If that doesn't solve the problem, then discuss the problem (noise and apathetic CA) with your resident director. Those people are paid (by you, the students) to enforce rules and manage the residence halls - hold them accountable.
You can also talk to your CA, RD and house council about the cleanliness of the bathrooms - if it's a "housekeeping" issue then it will be fixed. If it's an, "I don't want to clean up after myself because they pay someone else to do that" issue, then there isn't much they can do. Hopefully people on your floor will learn to take responsibility for their own mess and clean it up.
