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Dorms Life, etc.
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and a place for reader comment)
To whom it may concern,
My name is Brice Cothran, I am eighteen and live in Myers dorm, room 317. I have been having problems with the living conditions of the dorm ever since I arrived and so have many of those around me. In all hours of the day I have to deal with: insects in my room, broken closet doors, no screen for the only window, duck tape along the edges of the room, broken drawers, and a ripped mattress. These are just the problems that I have been having. My neighbor, Linwood Williams, has a problem with crumpled up paper sticking out of the edge of the walls to cover up cracks that someone didn't want to see.
The tuition at Mars Hill is too high for me to be enrolled here if I am to put upwith these conditions. I want to see something done to fix the conditions of my room and the health of the dorm as a whole. How am I supposed to want to take care of the dorm and my room if there is literally nothing to take care of? And doesn't the school charge the students at the end of the year for any damage done to their room? Were the students that lived in room 317 prior to me not charged? And if they were, where did that money go that was meant to repair the damages done?
I would like to propose a solution. Giving the student an extra fee to repair the living conditions would be a mistake. I was hesitant in coming to the school in the first place just because of the cost of living. Instead we should take a small amount of money from different and not so necessary expenses around the campus. Mars Hill has one of the most beautiful and best maintained campuses that I have seen. The college could always cut back in some of the work done on the college lawn and focus on the student's housing situation.
When I came to the campus on a tour back in July of 2006, our tour guide was very helpful in answering questions and showing us all there was to see in the education buildings and the outside area. But our only tour of the dorms was a virtual tour that was projected on a television screen, making it look a lot more comfortable and well maintained than it really was. I would like to see at least an effort put forth in fixing up the damages done to the dorms. And if this effort is put forth, you will give the student body a better environment for their growing education and place of living.
Sincerely, Daniel Brice Cothran
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Dear Editor,
I have a serious issue that I would like to see addressed. I am a freshman on campus and even though I don't spend as much time on campus as most students do, the time I do spend here I would like to see better parking.
I have had a couple of incidents where I have gotten parking fines from campus security that I believe were unfairly issued. One morning, the parking in the freshman lot below Fox was full, so I parked outside my resident hall. I immediately received a 25 dollar fine. In another incident I parked in a fire lane, I didn't know was a fire lane. The fine for that is 50 dollars, and students can't keep spending 25 dollars here, and 50 dollars there when the parking situation isn't our fault to begin with.
Upper classman are never here on the weekends for the most part .Therefore, I believe that we should be able to park outside our dorm on the weekend. On the weekend it's not as crowded as Mon-Fri, therefore the rule of parking shouldn't be so harsh. It seems campus security is just giving out traffic violations to make money. On most campuses, after a certain hour you're allowed to park wherever you want as long as you're not in a handicap or fire lane, and I think that we should have similar guidelines when it comes to parking at Mars Hill College.
Plenty of times I have come onto campus looking for a place to park and I was unsuccessful and ended up parking in the spots that were reserved for the town of Mars Hill. It gets ridiculous when you pay to go here and you can't even find a decent place to park. It upsets me when I have unnecessary fines to pay due to lack of parking. I'm sure that teachers get frustrated too when they come to work and they can't even park in the spot that has been designated as their spot. I just want better parking here. I believe with better parking it will help students to save time and allow me to use the time to do something productive for school or for my own personal use.
Sincerely, Ashlea Plummer
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Dear Hilltop,
As, a student, I feel having clean clothes is a necessity for a young college student, or for anyone in general. Good hygiene is a key factor in the self-esteem of a person. This has some effect on how well a student applies his or herself not just in schoolwork, but also in life. Is there a reason that this higher institute of learning, Mars Hill College, is not capable of supplying the student body with an ample amount of washers and dryers per dorm? The unfavorable thought of having two washers and two dryers for a building with three floors containing sixty-two students just does not make a lot of sense. I go through this thought process every time I attempt to wash clothes, or worse when I have to walk to the third floor with my things in hand, ready to wash clothes, and all the washers are in use.
You either have to wake up early at unusual times or late at night. For example, I have tried to wash clothes to cater to my schedule, but it is hard due to the fact that someone else is always washing their clothes. You have to wait for countless hours. This is just one case: some one told me that in Bailey Mountain Dormitory, there are two washers and three dryers. That is a 4-story building that holds 104 students going through the same predicaments, asking themselves, "Why am I not able to wash clothes at my convenience?"
To those who reside in dorms on campus: I want to call you together so that we may find a resolution for a problem threatening the improvement our daily life. I have some suggestions for the problem, which I hope are not too extreme or out of the schools' ability to help us.
The first suggestion would be to let each dorm have a fundraiser to get the money for more washers and dryers and the school uses some of the revenue it makes annually for the other half. That way the school will not have to pay for it all directly out of their budget.
The second suggestion would be to ask our school for the creation of a laundry building or a "large" laundry room with a sufficient amount of washers and dryers, about 20 of each. That will meet our dire need to have clean clothes by washing them according to our schedules each semester.
The suggestions show how student body and faculty and administrative staff can come together in order to fulfill the students' needs. No longer should we have to wear dirty clothes to class while we wait on someone to finish washing so that we may get the opportunity to do our own.
Sincerely, Brandon Hammond
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A main concern of MHC is the living conditions in the dorm rooms. I paid a lot of money to attend this college. I surely expected the living conditions to be fairly nice. I was wrong. I myself believe in taking care of the facilities. I don't think it is fair that students like me have to deal with bad living conditions, which may be caused by other uncaring students. The problem is that most of us do want a nice place to live.
One problem in my dorm room when I first arrived was the strong odor throughout the entire dorm. The lights were flickering and almost burned out in our room and bathroom. My suitemates door does not close, thus it doesn't lock. I don't necessarily like having to hold the faucet knobs to get water, which is a real pain when you are trying to wash your hands. The water coming out of the shower will have extreme temperature changes, not to mention the small size of the shower. There is mold growing in the shower. Also, the roof above the shower is molded, sagging, rotting, and leaking. I'm not a professional but I know that can not be safe while you're under it in the shower. It also can't be good for your physical health.
My first impression of the room was that it had not been taken care of or fixed up over the summer months. I think that MHC needs to realize that Mars Hill would not be here if it was not for the students, thus they should respect some of the students' wishes. As the students, I think we deserve better living conditions! Some of the current conditions are hazardous. If you ever mention a problem about your room to the RA or RD, they will say that they will get to it later and never do. I'm not sure what happens but it seems that they have more important issues, and never have time to help with your dorm room problem. It is probably because there are so many rooms, which means they need more help. Please consider giving the deserving students nicer facilities to live in! That's all I'm asking. -Robbie Swann
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Dear Editor,
There a lot of things that Mars Hill College needs to change. One thing that I believe to be the most important is the upkeep of dorm rooms. I live in Huffman, which is said to be one of the nicer dorms on campus, but I've visited Myers Dorm too, and it needs a lot of work.
To be specific about dorm room upkeep, the driers in the dorms, not just Huffman and Myers but in all the dorms, the washers and driers don't work. It costs one dollar to dry and one dollar to wash, but one dollar will not dry your clothes fully. You have to spend at least two dollars on the driers to get them to dry your clothes well enough to wear them.
Just the other day I went to wash my clothes. I spent three dollars on the washers. Once they finished washing I put them into the dryers. Since they're so expensive I put more than a regular load into the dryer. To compensate the big load I spent three dollars per dryer. I came back down an hour and a half later to find the dryers stopped, yet my clothes were still soaked. I felt that I had just wasted six dollars on drying my clothes. This is not acceptable.
Another thing is that you have to walk a mile just to wash and dry your clothes. It would be really useful to have a set of washers and driers on each floor in each dorm. Most people don't wash their clothes but once a week. Clothes aren't the lightest thing in the world to carry up and down flights of stairs. It would be a lot less of a hassle to just carry your clothes down the hall. When I go to wash my clothes I drag my thirty pound laundry bag down three flights of stairs. I guess I could carry my clothes down little by little, but who has time for that? I have classes and homework and extracurricular activities. I don't have time to lighten my load. This too is acceptable.
I suggest that the college get new dryers as well as new washers, or at least fix the one we have. They should make them a little less expensive too. Instead of charging a dollar to wash and a dollar to dry and not getting your clothes dry, why not charge a dollar to wash and dry and actually get your clothes dry. If this is a problem, at least get the dryers to work and charge a dollar and a half to wash and a dollar and a half to dry.
These are some serious issues that are strongly felt by most of the student body, and I believe that it needs to be looked into and changed if at all possible.
Thanks Sincerely, Brandon Godbolt
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Dear Hilltop,
I am writing this letter in response to the problem I see with our laundry services. They are very inconvenient, a pain, are of poor quality, and are becoming a problem for many students on campus.
Just last week I went to get my clothes out of the washer, and they were soaking wet. I tried to ring them out the best I could, but was frustrated none the less for paying money on a washing cycle that didn't accomplish much. About an hour later I go back to get them out of the dryer and not to my surprise they are still really wet! They were not just wet because they were a bit soggy going in, but because the dryers are not up to par. This weekend I needed to do the dryer cycle twice in order for them to be pretty close to dry, but they still weren't bone dry. It is hard because I do not have extra money lying around every time I need to do laundry! We should at least have washers and dryers that work.
For our huge building that we live in, and all the people sharing the same facilities, I would think that our school would want to provide us with equipment that was successful. If the dryers actually dried clothes, then the whole washing and drying process would go smoothly. Instead, we are waiting around because others have to put their clothes back in the dryer for another 50 minutes!
I understand that our school is old and rich with character, but that doesn't mean that all things need to remain old. A bad dryer holds no character to me. If we purchased new washers and dryers then it would be a tremendous investment. At the rate we are going they will have to purchased soon anyways. College kids cannot live without washing and drying machines, it just would not be a pretty (or good-smelling) sight.
Sincerely, Katie Kunzmann
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Most dormitories on this campus are in horrific conditions. Myers, Huffman, Edna Moore, and Stroup are in pitiful shape. I ask you to take a walk through the dormitories and look for yourself; you will see just how bad they are. Kids do not respect places that are nasty to begin with. If you lived in a place where the plaster was coming off of the walls and mold overtook the entire place, you would feel helpless. You would try to make the best of it as we have. Sometimes kids suffer from bad sanitation; they are more prone to be sick, have bad grades, and they really can't have the freedom to decorate and feel at home with a place like this. Should kids' grades suffer from the sanitation of the living space? Mars Hill College expects a lot out of students regarding grades. How can they be naïve by disregarding the well-being of our students?
Guys don't stand a chance! Myers and Huffman are male dormitories. In Myers on any given day you will see cockroaches the size of grizzly bears devouring everything and everyone in sight. You will also see flies swarming on food that has been thrown into the hallway or that is in the trash can. At this point you are about lose your cookies so you run into the bathroom and bury your head into the trash can, vomiting just once. When you lift your head you see hair covering the floor like a wool blanket. It's nasty. Then the stench hits you like a freight train. The smell of rotting feces and dried urine make you run and throw your head back into the trash can. When you think you have had enough, you go over to wash your face and the mixture of hair, spit, and tobacco gross you out again. As you leave the bathroom you go into your room. As you flip the light switch all it does is flicker, the screen is out of the window, and unless you have a room by yourself, you can't breathe because there is not enough room for two people.
Yes, that's Myers. It's the only place on campus that's referred to as the Ghetto. Huffman is not as bad, but it still can use total renovation. I have been told that the women's dormitories are not as extreme but they were built before some of the freshman's parent's and grand-parent's were born. Therefore they can not be in good living shape from their age. I would tear them down and build new ones.
I agree to some extent that the sanitation is due in part to the students. So is it the parent's fault for not teaching their children how to keep things clean and respect their living space? To some extent it may be, but you can't make a piece of granite shine as much as a diamond. In this vicious cycle the school does not respect the dormitories, therefore the students see this and they will not respect the dorms. Finally you can conclude that the school does not care for the students. If they did they would not have them living in places such as these. Not only does this affect the students attending school now but the students coming in to visit are let down by the sight of the dorms.
In conclusion, what are we going to do? I believe that since I pay approximately $30,000 per year to go call Mars Hill, my Alma Mater, I should at least have a nice place to lay my head and sleep; a place where sanitation is better than that of the local Waffle House restaurant. Right now I would say that Myers dorm has a sanitation grade of 7 on a scale of 1 to 100. Please help us; we need a place to live. Do not let the reputation of this college deplete because of its sanitation.
Thanks, Jeremy S. Payne
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Dear Editor:
I am a freshman student here at Mars Hill College. I would like to discuss what I have noticed during my first couple months living on this campus.
As the weeks have passed I have noticed a slight change in many aspects of the campus from when I first got here. But there is one piece of the campus that started off poorly and only continues to get worse. This is the cleanliness of the dorms, and dorm bathrooms. From consulting with many other college students, they all seem to carry the same view as me on the cleanliness of the dorms, no matter which one they live in. For example, in Fox, the plumbing is not up to standards, causing toilets trouble to flush. In the boy's dorm, Myers, there are cockroaches that surround the building, and get into the bathrooms.
Since I do not have a first hand experience in these other dorms, my focus will be primarily on Stroup. This is my current residence where I have seen an unsanitary progression of bacteria growth.
I understand that cleaning our rooms and bathrooms is a responsibility left up to the individuals, but I do not see why we do not get any helpful resources to keep the cleanliness. This is like expecting students to read their assignments and then not telling them what book to read out of. Although I understand our responsibilities, I can not seem to quite figure out how all the funds we put into the school do not contribute one bit to the health of the students. The rust, and build up that is stained and left in these bathrooms from years before are present and should have been taken care of over the summer.
These living conditions are a main contributor to the spread of illnesses such as the flu. When a couple students get ill, many more are left to follow. This results in fevers, and vomiting that disable to the students to attend all their classes. Once students start missing classes, it will only lead them down a rough road to get back on their feet. I strongly believe that the health of the students could be improved by simply eliminating the places where bacteria dwells, the dorms. I would like to propose a suggestion. Just as the toilet paper is left in the bottom closet for us to pick up, there should be a vacuum and possibly some cleaning products as well. If in that closet they had a couple of vacuums and bottles of cleaning spray, we could clean on our own schedule and then return what we borrowed.
Thank you very much for your time, and I hope that you will help us make this campus a cleaner and safer place for everyone. - Anna James
Reader Comment
Erika Whicker, Freshman, 10/26/06, 4:13 p.m.
I agree that the dorms are almost uninhabitable to live in. I live in Stroup and the bathrooms are hideous to look at. I agree with Anna James in saying that there should be some extra cleaning supplies in the closet where we go to get our tissue paper. They knew they were expecting us, so why did the school not prepare and make our dorms and bathrooms a little more nice to look at?
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