Staff Editorial: Facilities in need of improvement

Another day, another Facilities mishap.

This time, the unlucky victims are the residents of Hill College House, who experienced another flooding that has been described by one account as "massive."

If the goal of Housing and Conference Services is to retain students, as they say it is, then they should not allow a freshman dormitory to face such serious damage issues. This is especially questionable given the multimillion dollar renovations going on just outside the building on Hill Square; woulnd't it be more prudent to spend some of that money on maintaining the existing facilities to avoid such mishaps in the future?

But Hill is not the only residence in this position. There appears to be a glaring discrepancy between maintaining current buildings and allocating funds to begin constructing new ones.

It has certainly not been a good semester for the maintenance of current buildings, or indeed for the student residents of those buildings. For example, in September a pipe burst in Harnwell College House on the 24th floor, causing water damage to some rooms as far as 12 floors below.

While some progress has been made with pest control, far too many students have to deal with unwanted rodents and cockroaches on a regular basis.

In addition, the high rise elevators are just as unreliable and temperamental as they have always been. This lack of attention is troubling, and while they may not raise concerns over safety, they certainly raise concerns of convenience. Getting trapped in an elevator should not be a rite of passage for living in the high rises.

We are not ignoring the progress that has been made on some projects, including the remodeling of Hamilton College House and the plans to do the same with the other high rises, as well as the recent repairs in the Quadrangle.

However, it appears that there are still students living in the college house system who have complaints over many different aspects of their buildings.

Additionally, it only exacerbates the problem when Facilities is less than forthcoming with any sort of contact, consistently avoiding not only accountability but also simple explanations.

While we applaud the University for the progress it has made on certain renovation projects, it is imperative that they not lose sight of the buildings that currently house students and that still require attention.

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