In recent years Residence Life has acted like the postal service: the rates keep going up but the service doesn’t improve.
My dorm fee for North Hall has increased signifigantly in the last three years.
Although much needed renovations have finally been made to dorms, such as new card readers, nicer interior carpeting, and replacement sinks, much more should be done.
During the winter some of the residence halls act like either furnaces or freezers, depending on whether the heat decided to come on for that day. Adequate temperature controls should be installed in the rooms of all dorms, not just the Quad, Barton, and Sharp.
When major changes such as the new card readers are made, their installation should be finished at all residence halls before residents return. I know a few Quad residents who still can’t use their card readers.
Additionally, the new laundry machines that have been installed in residence halls are not the swipe-card machines that the Independent Council lobbied for last year; the new machines must still be fed quarters.
Many of the Institute-run apartments, like Stackwyck, and some dorms have problems with leaky roofs, inadequate screens or window shades, and broken doors.
Although some of those problems were caused by the severe thunder storm that hit campus a couple of weeks ago, most of the problems have been around for years.
It is not acceptable for a door to sometimes not close correctly, screens to not keep out insects, or for roofs to persistently leak.
Further, when a maintenance request is made to FIXX, they should act on it promptly. North Hall’s fuzzy cable service still has not been fixed despite a request by the residence director of the building days ago. Damaged screens were taken out in some RPI apartments such as Stackwyck but cannot be replaced for another few weeks because the screens were not ordered at the same time the old screens were removed.
For student life on campus to improve, the Resident Hall Association should act on the concerns of the student population.
