In recent years Wesleyan housing has undergone major changes, from the renovations to Clark Hall to the introduction of the prototype senior houses. Unfortunately many of the existing senior houses have been left out of the renovations, leaving students with cracked windowpanes, peeling paint, and ancient kitchen appliances for their final year at Wes.
With the recent proposal to add $200 to woodframe housing fees next year, we agree with the URLC’s request that $100 of that money should be spent furnishing woodframe houses. It is already more expensive to live in a woodframe house than other living options, and costs to furnish the houses, according to the WSA’s survey, are on average almost $600. With tuition increasing each year, by the time students become seniors they are saddled with many more expenses than when first arriving at Wesleyan. Providing furniture is one simple way to ease that burden.
By only adding furniture, however, the University would be ignoring the fundamental problems with nearly all senior woodframe houses: they are falling apart. As the University has repeated over and over while promoting prototype houses, the woodframe houses are not economically viable to maintain, and the popularity of the prototypes this year has proven that there is a reasonable alternative if we ultimately do away with the current houses.
In the meantime, however, we can only hope that the other $100 of this increased fee will be used to maintain the woodframe houses with the same level of quality found in the dorms showcased on tours. Taking care of these houses is a gargantuan task, and it is admirable that the University has attempted to maintain them for this long. But while seniors have survived for years buying their own furniture, getting along without functional water pipes is a little tougher.
And as for the question about providing beds, it’s important to remember how many problems the student body’s lack of long-term memory can solve. In three years, when the class of 2009 is moving out, no one will remember a time when providing your own bed was the norm. People should still have the option of buying their own beds, but these students should not be charged an excessive removal and storage fee for not wanting University beds. After all, there is plenty of room in which to store unwanted beds, especially in woodframe basements, which Physical Plant employees and suspicious persons frequent anyway.
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