On-campus living is not always ideal

Despite our physical differences and her fictional nature, Cinderella and I do have one thing in common. Each morning, we are both awoken at the crack of dawn. While Cinderella got pecked awake by sweet animated birds, I get to wake up to the sounds of jackhammers and trucks backing up every morning.

Like many students who have lived on campus these last few years, residing on what feels like an active construction site has become a part of my daily reality. I live in Weible Residence Hall, and like other students who too live in Weible, or who lived in the high rises last year while they were building Cater, or in any on-campus residence hall near construction, my living conditions can feel hellish.

Right outside my window, they are building the new wing of Sudro Hall. It is modern-looking and big; so big in fact that I never get any sun in my room throughout the entire day. If you thought it was difficult getting Vitamin-D in North Dakota, imagine having Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated being built right outside your bedroom window.

It would be one thing if the construction started at noon, but no, it starts every morning. At either 6:59 a.m. on weekdays or 7:59 a.m. on Saturdays (I know, so generous), the sound of concrete pouring goes on twenty feet from my head. The sun may not have woken up and graced our skies, but I’m awake.

Another factor here is that most students pay large sums to live on campus. It seems that if freshmen are required to live here, they should get to live in mentally advantageous conditions. Having to be woken up early, be stuck in a stuffy room for ten hours with the windows shut and denied any sunlight hardly seems advantageous.

You would think that students living in any conditions on campus to which they have not agreed should be provided additional financial assistance towards their housing. It hardly seems fair that students living on the sixth floor in Cater who have had water pouring from their ceiling should have to pay the same as other students in the building who have not experienced any issues.

Not only would a system that rewarded students who have had to deal with less than optimal living conditions keep the students happy, but it would also keep the university accountable. Hall directors and Residence Life staff often seem to be playing catch-up trying to fix things in their hall, and many times (like with a large construction project), living conditions are out of their control.

However, if the university had to reduce housing for students affected by construction, flooding, power outages or any number of other issues, it’s sure that these things would be dealt with more quickly and would be better prevented in the future from happening again. 

I don’t know many college students who enjoy being woken up at eight in the morning on weekends, but I’m not one of them. I just hope future college students don’t have to endure such an untraditional alarm clock in the future.