Part of living in college dorms is hoping everything runs smoothly, or else it will most likely ruin your day, disrupt your work or just make life harder in general.
You hope the girl before you cleaned her hair out of the shower drain. You hope the guy before you lifted the seat up or at least cleaned up after himself. You hope the locks on your doors are secure and the windows close all the way so you don’t have a high-pitched whistle drilling a hole through your psyche all night.
Unfortunately, there is always that one kid that ruins it for everyone.
Adirondack Hall’s fire doors had been broken for about five weeks. Someone walking through one day kicked the magnetized box that holds the door open, breaking it. All of the magnetized doors are connected to one another, so if one doesn’t work, none of them work.
At first it was just an inconvenience. “Oh well, it’s just another door.”
Then you’re sitting in your room and you hear a single knock on your door. Confused, you check, but nobody’s there. Someone had just opened one of the fire doors to get through your section. You watch through the peep hole on your door and flinch when they open the door on the opposite end, because it sounded like someone knocked on your door again.
Instead, you get two knocks on your door every time someone walks through your section because of the air suction and the loose hinges on the door.
About a week later, I heard a bang and a squeak, and I went into the hall to find a girl sitting on the floor who had been too short to see through the tiny window, and a guy leaning over her, asking if she’s okay.
Suddenly, everyone in Adirondack approached the doors with caution, not wanting to be knocked over by a person pushing harder on the other side.
Having to send out for parts was the main reason it took so long for the doors to be fixed. It was unfortunate the parts weren’t available on campus, but it makes one think how efficient maintenance would be if parts were readily available.
How often does a lock break, and would maintenance be able to fix it right away? Or would you have to barricade yourself in your room and hope for the best?
Overflowing showers have also been a popular complaint around campus, but nobody has ever said it was fixed, or it took so long for it to be fixed that it was forgotten by all but those who had to deal with it.
There was a light in the Adirondack courtyard that nobody knew about until they fixed it. How long had that been broken until the bulb was replaced?
Some things are easily overlooked, like the broken light or a shower that overflows a bit. It’s understandable if it isn’t directly affecting our daily lives, but a whole building had fire doors broken for over a month. That should raise a bit more concern than one bum drain or fixing a light nobody even knew existed anyway.
Email Amanda Little at amanda.little@cardinalpointsonline.com.
