I would like to drop everything in my hands, stand up and applaud Housing. If you live in the dorms, you might have seen the small improvements made.
First of all, over the summer I found out that 70 mattresses were replaced by 70 new mattresses.
Some of them had springs coming out of them and others were pre-dipped. There was definitely a need for new ones.
Of course, there are still other mattresses that need to be replaced as well and I do not doubt that they will be replaced over time.
Yesterday when I walked through the Stu-Han lounge I realized that something was different. I looked left and then right and saw that most of the lounge was empty. Then it hit me, the furniture was missing.
Not all of the furniture was gone, just the ones that were torn up and had holes in them. I turned to my roommate asked her what happened to the furniture and she told me that it was being replaced. When it would be replaced, she did not know. But one thing I knew: there was definitely an effort to fix up the lounge being made.
Since the lounge areas are being fixed up, then why stop there? Why can’t we focus some energy on the kitchen, the floors and bathrooms? There is so much more that can be done to improve the dorms.
As a Stu-Han resident, my viewpoint is mainly based of what dormitory damage I see in Stu-Han, but I am sure that most of what I say will be true for Brandt and the Oaks as well.
There are stains on the ceilings, broken heaters, holes in the walls and the list goes on. From the looks of it, the residence halls look like they’ve needed to be fixed up for a while now.
Last year, when I would take a shower, I would always look at the ceiling and wonder why there were brown dots all over the ceiling. Now I walk through the hallway and think the same thing.
Part of the problem might be the students not telling housing about the issues we see in the dorms. I know I never complained because I thought that no one would listen to me.
Now I realize that my little voice could have caused other voices to join in and we could have made a difference.
Here is my little voice.
The University has as much of a role in this as we do, if not more. Every year they should do maintenance throughout all the dorms, seeing what needs to be replaced and what needs to be fixed.
It is obvious that the couches had been torn up for a while and the holes were only getting bigger. It is hard to comprehend how anyone could not see that they needed to be replaced.
One reason I know that will be brought up for why it is taking so slow to fix up the dorms is money. That much I understand, but there is nothing wrong with doing a little renovation each year or each semester until it starts to look better.
Maintenance’s job is to fix the problems we have in the residence halls such as a dead light bulb, so why are they not fixing the obvious problems that are not in the rooms?
When I walk through Stu-Han and see loose tiles, I become a little afraid and very cautious.
Hopefully I will be able to see some of these changes take place before I graduate in 2010. They have got the ball rolling and now they just need to finish it.
Sher Porter, a sophomore journalism major, is news editor of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at sporter4@ulv.edu.
Journalism operations manager at the University of La Verne. Production manager and business manager of the Campus Times.