Students say dorms need much repair

Living in the High Rises has its ups and downs. But many University students would say that it definitely has more downs -- and slow ones. "The main gripe about living here is the elevators," College sophomore Amy Carroll said yesterday. Carroll said taking the elevators during rush hours makes it almost impossible to get anywhere on time. The elevators are much too slow, she said, and students have to get-up extra early in order to wait for an elevator and take one down to the lobby while it stops on almost every floor. "It took me 15 to 20 minutes to get up here and I was waiting for an elevator for a really long time," said College junior Cliff Schecter, who lives on the 22nd floor of High Rise South. Schecter said he enjoys the view but cannot stand waiting for the elevators. Other than that, Schecter said he really has no problems with his room. "The level of elevator service is a source of continual frustration to the residents," said Sam Shaulson, a head resident in High Rise South. Carroll and her roommates live in a High Rise North apartment which she said has many faults -- such as a stove that does not fully work, a freezer that freezes all the liquids in the fridge and a toilet that leaks. While moving into the room, College sophomore Grace Loh, one of Carroll's roommates, said she found a leak in the air conditioner. As a result, a good portion of her carpet and her comforter were soaking wet, she said. "I called maintenance and they came about two days later," Loh said. "The same thing happened to two other people on my hall." In the same High Rise, there is a mouse that runs wild through a room on the 21st floor, some residents said. He's "our fifth roommate," College sophomore Seth Frankel said. "Since the beginning of school, he comes and visits every once and a while." One of Frankel's roommates, College sophomore Joe Bongiovanni said he hates the fact that there is a mouse in his room. He said the mouse does not usually stay very long and is probably just using their room as a path to go somewhere else. But like many residents, Bongiovanni feels that "the elevators are by far the most annoying aspect of High Rise living." Bongiovanni, along with other higher floor residents, said he does not like the fact that the Express elevators go to lower floors if those floor buttons are pressed. The Express elevator in High Rise North is supposed to be for students who live above the 14th floor. But many residents abuse this, and Bongiovanni said he gets annoyed when people get into the Express elevator and press lower floor buttons. He suggested that the buttons from two to 14 should be locked in the Express elevator. He also said that random floor buttons in the elevator light up due to hot weather or heat produced by many people in the elevators. But the slow elevators are not dangerous, and most students do not consider them a very serious matter. They just live with it. But many do wonder aloud if High Rises are really worth the money students pay. "I think that we should get a lot more for the money we pay," said Engineering sophomore Ken Sable. He said he would not so much like more or better things, but that he would like more or better services. Two weeks ago, there was water leaking from Sable's bathroom ceiling in his High Rise South apartment. The leak became a large hole when the ceiling crashed down on September 11th. Sable said he and his roommates complained about the drip to the dorm's front desk as early as September 8th, and then again, two days later. On the morning of the 11th, the drip was still there, he said. That afternoon, he said, "the repairman came and poked a couple of holes in the ceiling to let the water escape and then he said that it would all dry out by tomorrow and that everything would be fine." But everything was not fine. The ceiling above the toilet came crashing down that night, Sable said, and it was "definitely very dangerous." The incident left a hole the size of a sink above the toilet, and Sable could see and smell the pipes from the toilet one floor up. After the crash, nothing was done about it for many days, Sable said. He notified maintenance, but was told that they would have to wait until Monday. "We had to take care of it all and clean it up," Sable said. They had to clean up noisome fluids and wet ceiling parts, he said, adding that they even had to fish out ceiling bits from the toilet. "I don't understand, it was an emergency," Sable said. "They really don't care." He also added that he was not really sure who in particular was to blame, but felt that the whole maintenance system was at fault, seeing that he waited more than a week to get the ceiling fixed. "It was all taken care of, but we should not have had to go a whole week like that," Sable said. Sable said maintenance told him that there were only two plumbers available on campus and said he thinks this is the problem with High Rise living -- the lack of staff. Another bathroom ceiling leak started four days ago on the 23rd floor of High Rise East. "There was some leaking in the plumbing and then a part of the ceiling collapsed," College junior Brent Spiegel said. The ceiling fell two days ago and the leak was fixed the same day, but there is still a hole in the ceiling which maintenance said will be fixed in a couple of days, Spiegel said. "Once they got here they did a very good job," he added. A Residential Living official said yesterday that the High Rise "elevators are complained about on a daily basis" and that improvements are only a "band-aid solution." The official, who did not want to be identified, said that more money needs to be put into the High Rises in order to improve the living conditions. Or, the official said, the University could just tear down the High Rises to solve the problem.

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