Just one week removed from the presidential election, I feel compelled to make a statement, to say something important, and take a stand. So in the spirit upon which this nation was founded, I will exercise my first amendment right, but not to tackle some qualitative question that stretches across the vastness of our country. No, I mean to demand an answer for a more pressing topic. Why is the card reader for the washers and dryers in Warren Hall still out of order?
Back in September, as residents piled back into Warren for another long semester they came back to find new doors, windows, furniture, and refurbished bathrooms. A pleasant sight for the upperclassmen, except there was one drawback. In the renovation, the laundry room had to be changed and with it, the card system.
Residents assumed something was being done, but in early October it became evident in an e-mail to Residence Life that they were not even aware of the problem. They promised to “assess” the situation. After sitting on their “assesses” for over a month, the card reader remains broken, as many students who put RAD money on their student balance specifically for the purpose of laundry are forced to take out money from their thin bank accounts or drag their personals to one of the other WNDS halls.
Res Life has sent “updates” on the situation, saying the system required a new part that needed to be ordered from the manufacturer. They promptly informed the residence when that part arrived, two-plus weeks later. Folks at Res Life proceeded to say it was now up to the technicians to install and configure the system.
That was three weeks ago. For all those non-math majors, that makes it over a month since Res Life became aware of the situation, and almost a month since the necessary equipment was delivered to fix the problem. The result? Nothing. The card reader still sits silently attached to the wall, laughing at all those students whose RAD money is caught in limbo on their student accounts.
The longevity of the problem raises one obvious question: How much time is Res Life honestly devoting toward fixing this ongoing problem? Students living on-campus rely on this department to meet their needs and address them in a timely and complete fashion.
While I will be the first to admit that the Warren situation is not a life or death struggle, it is a predicament that falls into Res Life’s domain, and they have a duty, as any landlord does, to promptly solve the problem. Their failure to do so in Warren is disconcerting. It makes one wonder if the Institute and Res Life really considers the quality of student living a top priority.
