Dorm life has become a very pressing issue on Connecticut College’s campus. The dorms have become a cause for concern for many people, as they point to aspects that need significantly more attention that they are receiving.
I live in the Burdick basement. I have only been on campus for three weeks, but I have already noticed that the basement has a bad reputation, which explains a lot about the rather unorthodox and crazy things that my floormate and I have seen. First, there has been a constant problem with cockroaches on our floor even before I moved in. A couple days before I arrived, my roommate experienced a cockroach problem in our dorm, which he informed me about the day before I was set to move in. This was why I was not surprised to discover two dead cockroaches under my bed while I was sweeping.
Instances like this are not just happening in Burdick. One person living in Wright stated that she saw a dead frog on her desk when she moved in. You read that right…a dead frog in the dorm room. One can perhaps tolerate beetles or cockroaches but imagine seeing a dead frog upon entering your own room!
Yulie Rozin ‘25 also stated her displeasure with the stench in the hallway of Wright.“It smells really bad in Wright,” she said, “I do like my room and stuff, but it’s connected to Harris…you can’t go into the hall.”
This seemed to be the consensus among many people that were interviewed about this, the rooms themselves are fine, but there are certain factors that cause uneasiness.
Amira Hakimi ‘25 said, “I live in Windham. I moved in and there [were] beetles all over the floor, but that’s fine.”
I started truly resenting the dorm conditions not even 12 hours after moving in. I went into one of the bathrooms on my floor to take a shower. When I stepped out of the shower, I saw the real mess. I noticed that the bathroom was flooding out of the drain outside of the shower. To make matters worse, there was an assemblage of black stuff oozing out of the drain which emitted a foul stench.
I was rather incensed by this situation: a bathroom with a flooding problem, along with bugs and cockroaches in the dorm, and having to deal with an absurdly scorching room where we had the plug in three fans just to maintain a slight homeostatic environment due to not having any air conditioning.
With the largest class in Connecticut College history of 650 freshmen being admitted, the Residential Education and Living Staff (REAL) had to consider every possible solution to avoid overcrowding the residential halls after dealing with the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.
One of the ideas that was put into effect was the leasing of the Manwaring building in downtown New London. So far, this has worked tremendously for all parties involved.
One senior who is currently living in Manwaring said that the experience has been “awesome”.
“It’s really nice to be off campus and to be able to engage in the New London community actually,” she said, “The amenities are really nice. I feel it allows for me and my roommate [to] cook for ourselves. We have to be responsible and get to school on time. So, I feel like it helps a lot with[…]real world experiences.”
Another decision made by REAL that has been proved to be beneficial for those living in campus housing so far is the transformation of several common rooms across campus.Two freshman roommates living in a converted common room in Knowlton shared their experience in the new environment, saying that they have had a “great experience so far”.“We all have our own space,” one of the roommates said, “but we also have communal space, which is nice.”
A big reason why is because of the hard work that Sara Rothenberger and her team has done. Rothenberger is the Assistant Dean for REAL. She reflected on the past few trying years, considering COVID, and how the largest class in the college’s history.
“I was eating lunch with some folks…a couple weeks ago at the beginning of the year, and they said ‘Dean Rothenberger, aren’t you excited for a normal year?” She continued, “And well, yes [but] what I know from working in this field [is that] no year is particularly normal. Every year gives certain challenges certain things that you’re like, ‘oh we haven’t figured this one out before’.”
This year has without a doubt been no exception to Rothenberger’s philosophy.
Millions of dollars are poured into institutions such as this one and students already pay thousands to the dorms, so it’s reassuring to see the college putting effort into improving the quality of life for students on campus when it comes to the dorms. They should at least be a place that students are able to live in without dilapidated conditions.
I plan to be here for the next four years. My classmates and I will be eating in the cafeterias, learning in the classrooms, and sleeping in the dorms. It’s great to see the college working towards improving the conditions of the dorms, but the process is far from done. It’s important that the residential and facilities departments keep putting their foot on the gas pedal.
