As young adults, the transition into college living brings a plethora of challenges. A primary change that causes challenges is when students make the move to on-campus living. While dorming on campus is exciting, students are faced with a handful of housing obligations. 

This type of living mimics an adult situation of renting an apartment from a landlord. In our circumstance, a resident student is the renter as Pace University is the landlord.

College naturally sets students up for what’s to come in the real world, on-campus housing gives students a small taste of what renting an apartment is like.

In respect to the college or university, students are made aware of various rules and regulations that are set in place to ensure the safety of the individual and those around them. On the other hand, students expect this type of respect and accommodations to be met on their end as well.

This past week, Martin Hall resident, Wesley Brown, had a startling smell leak into his dorm room.

“I’m sitting in my room and all the sudden I smell this intense stove/gas smell,” Brown recalled. 

Alarmed by the smell of a potential gas leak, Brown rushed down to the lobby and used the university emergency phone to alert security. The security guard on the phone quickly dismissed Brown’s injunction.

Brown adds,“He said he couldn’t help me and dismissed me. He didn’t even ask for my name.” 

Unable to gain the help of campus security, Brown sought out an Martin Hall RA to find a solution. Close to the midnight hour, an RD checked up on the room to find the smell gone.

While the mystery remains whether or not there was a gas leak of some sort occurring in Brown’s room, the issue of facility response time is sorely lacking. Dating back to the original security call to the RD check-up, it took the dorm hall nearly four hours to respond. 

In the end, Brown has not heard from security since the emergency call and no follow-up has occurred. As residents, paying up to eight grand in housing fees, students expect to be under the constant care of university facilities. 

Dilemmas like Brown’s are not uncommon. Faulty stoves in townhouses will be ignored for months, toilets continue to clog and leak, washing machines remain out of order for weeks, and other facility complications plague the dorm halls of Pleasantville.

While this situation allows campus residents to get a sense of the real world and dealing with rental issues, the university must begin to acknowledge and fix the vast drawbacks that students face in the dorms. Regardless of urgency or hazard, each problem should be met with equal concern.