Stephanie Riccio
Eng 112
Essay 3
“College
Gone Wrong”
When
you think about college dorm life, you picture what everyone imagines… freedom,
your own room, awesome food, and a bunch of friends that are always there for
you to hang out with. Sadly, Southern Connecticut State University is
misconstrued as a clean and positive environment for students. After living
here in Hickerson Hall for the past eight months, I have noticed all the
underlying problems that exist in the dorm halls. Due to the rude RA’s, absurd
rules, and filthy bathrooms, the quality of living on campus needs to be a
better experience socially and physically here at SCSU.
Living
on campus doesn’t mean total and complete freedom, you still have someone who
will keep an eye on you. While living in an SCSU dorm, you are required to have
two RA’s (resident advisor) to watch over the halls and make sure if there are
any problems or concerns you have someone to talk to. Over my time here I have
realized that the RA’s like to take their form of “power” and run with it. Personally, I have been harassed by multiple
different RA’s; making comments towards me about the people I bring into the
building, the times I go in and out of the building, or just to me in general.
For example, my roommate and I recently had three of our male friends here at
SCSU to visit. Meanwhile one of our best friends had just tragically passed
away; we wanted to get our mind off things and cheer up for a little, not
knowing us having our friends there would cause the RA’s to act in such a way.
As we were signing the three boys in, on the of male RA’s said out loud in
front of the whole lobby,” so which one are you guys fucking tonight?” You can
imagine the shock we were all in as the rest of the RA’s who were at the desk
laughed it off as if it were a joke. Another problem with authority is that
they think they are able to talk to the residents any way they want. I’ve heard
an RA call a resident a bitch, annoying, and even ratchet. Not knowing what to
do the student simply walks away because an RA is supposed to be a positive
authority figure that you should respect. There has been many times where
students forget their hoot loot. Living here at Southern you know that you need
your hoot loot to unlock the door to get into your building. I have seen
multiple times and even experienced myself when the RA’s who are on desk duty
will not unlock the door for you and leave you outside until someone who is
walking out of the building opens the door for you. If this is not absurd than I am not sure what
is.
Keeping your room
clean and up to standard for the rules that are set here is a guideline all
residents must abide by. Every other week we have something called room checks
where the RA’s on your floor go from room to room and look for anything illegal
or that is prohibited by the fire marshals. They will also ask you questions
trying to get to know you such as what’s your favorite color or food. My
roommate and I have gotten compliments from the resident advisors about the décor
in our room, never once have we been told to take anything down or put anything
away. While we were on break, there was a candle taken from our room, but it
wasn’t just any candle. This candle was the one that we lit at our friends
candle lit vigil after he was murdered. The candle has not been used nor was it
lit when it was taken away. Now we will never get that back and our RA’s were
fully aware of the circumstance and what the candle was for. One of my close
friends is in our dorm room every day, and she sleeps over almost every night
during the week. We are not allowed to go get food, or attend the gym without
having to sign her in and out of the building every time. When my little
brother came to visit me because he has never been to a college or on a campus…
he was not allowed into my room because he was 14 and did not have an ID. To me
that was a slap in the face that my own family member was not allowed in my
room as if he was going to start trouble. How are you supposed to be
comfortable in the place you call “home” if they won’t allow your own family
into your room?
Cleanliness is a
must when you are living with 50 other girls on one floor who all share one
bathroom. In each of the residence halls there are janitors that “clean” their
assigned floors every morning. Janitors are supposed to be there to fix any
maintenance problems, leaking, or flooding. How are they doing their jobs when
on my floors bathroom there are only three showerheads on the showers. In total
there are nine different stalls in which you are allowed to shower, three of
them have the correct showerhead on them and the rest spray a powerful beam of
water directly onto your body. Never mind the fact that you are in a three foot
by three foot box and have nowhere to move out of the way from this stream of
water because there are clumps of girls hair, dirty tampons, and gum stuck all
over the walls. . A statement made by current student Karoli Rodriguez was,” I
have never been more disgusted by the living conditions I am in, in my entire
life.” This was said as she sprayed the hallway with Lysol to cover up the
smell of fish and throw up. The worst part about being stuck in a building with
a bunch of dirty girls and no one to help the situation; is that we all get
billed for it. For example, a female on our floor decided to flush her pad. Not
thinking it would over flow the toilet, our bathroom was swamped with bloody
water. No one would confess to this gruesome act so every resident on our floor
got charged $35.00 to help fix the problem. How is that fair to the other 39
residents who clearly did not do it? As you leave for vacations such as spring
break and Christmas, you have to clean things out such as your fridge and
cabinets of food that may go bad. That is a common act that happens at every
college, yet here at SCSU there’s more to it than just that. We receive a list
of tasks we must complete or yet again we will get billed. For example we have
to tip our fridge over and let the ice melt onto our floor from the freezer, then
wait for it all to be out and mop up the puddle that is left on the ground of
our dorm room. My roommate and I had no ice to dissolve so we cleaned out the
freezer and left our fridge off. When we got back we were billed $13.90 because
our fridge was not tipped over for the RA’s to see. Enough becomes enough after
you take a long time of abuse.
I believe that a
solution for this problem with the RA’s having too much power is for them to go
through a different training. Clearly if they think they can treat us like were
under them and disrespect us, something was not done right when they were
trained for this position. After doing some research I found a website,
www.reslife.org that offered many tips to new
RA’s. They offer activities that you can endure with your new residents to help
everyone get to know each other and start off building a healthy relationship
between one another. The website stated, “This training is designed to help
RA’s prepare for any difficulty that they come in contact with”, and I think
that is a positive way to help with any problems that may occur.
A solution for the
dirty halls and bathrooms would come along with stronger guidelines that are
set by the hall director. As a whole building it should be very clear of what
you are and aren’t supposed to do in these dorm halls. As the rules are now;
they state that if they have to call a janitor after the hours that they have
already been there then every resident on the floor gets billed. I think this
is completely wrong because that gives girls who don’t care about cleanliness a
free pass to do whatever they want. How would they get caught if every one will
be getting billed? We all go down as a group even the residents who spend
barely any time here; and that is truly unfair to the other residents. An idea
to help prevent further problems is outside of the bathroom could be a sign in
sheet for who enters and exits the bathroom to keep track of who is truly
making the mess. Yes some may say this is drastic; but what about the innocent
ones who constantly are having to pay for the messes that other females make?
A positive solution for the guest policy here
at Southern Connecticut State University would be that the students who do live
here do not have to sign in and out of other buildings on campus. I do respect
that all incomers who do not going to school here should be on file due to
safety, but not the students who live here. There is a guest system at Central
Connecticut State University that I believe we should adopt into our system.
They have to only sign guests in after eight PM and it is only the guests who
do to attend CCSU. There is way less confusion and commotion and the residents
who live there are a lot happier.
NBC recently
ranked New Haven as the fourth most dangerous city, and we understand that
going to school here can put some parents on high alert for their child’s
safety. Yet the students who go to school here should not be looked at as
strangers or intruders to the dorm buildings. The safety of the students and
residence here should be a number one priority, stated on SCSU’s website is”
Southern is committed to maintaining a secure campus environment for its
students, faculty and staff” and that is well understood especially in the area
in which we live. Yet the students who do live here should not be treated as if
they are criminals when they enter into another building to visit their
friend/boyfriend/classmate etc.
A question to ask
many, how would you feel if the place you referred to as “home” for nine months
was a placed you hated? Living somewhere
in which you feel uncomfortable and personally attacked by the authority
figures who are in that building is an awful feeling. It also comes along with added stress; as if
what first year college students are dealing with is not enough? To have a
healthy and successful freshman year of college, you need to have all of the
proper aspects of your living situation to be able to function. Something needs
to be done to set a better path for the incoming freshman.
