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Show The Forum January 29, 2003 Page7 OPINION: Carle son Hall Should. Not be Overlooked tion of residents between Ben Rippel Staff Writer Former college President Peggy Stock had a vision when taking the reins of Westminster in 1995 to build a residential village. The campus resident population has grown from 70 students five years ago to now just under 500. Three new residence halls, as well as upgrades to older halls were part of this idea. The college was able to host Olympic security teams and continues to proudly show its halls to prospective students and alumni. However, one hall is an exception to this improvement. Carleson Hall contains about 10 percent of the campus population, but seems to get the shaft when it comes to benefits and safety of its residents. All four other halls are on a common end of campus, and tend to allow broader socializa build- ings, as well as a greater ease in participation when ARWC plans an activity. Some residents in Carleson feel distanced, both due to this physical gap as well as a mental one. Despite being housed in the same building, admissions doesnt show rooms in Carleson Hall to prospective students. Why? The hall is not overly appealing due to its smaller lounge areas and more beat-u- p appearance in comparison to Hogle. The hall also has safety issues that need to be dealt with. Many rooms have tricky doorknobs that need jiggling or pulling to allow locking them. One resident has had a work order in for months on her knob, but it has not been repaired or replaced. This is not just a comfort issue, as during fire drills (and in the event of an actual fire) residence life staff are supposed to open each room to check for 1 fT V. residents and then lock the door behind them. This cannot be done in a timely manner with each doors lock behaving in a different manner. On second floor, a hallway light also has been burned out since December and is not yet repaired. This may seem like a minor comfort issue for the residents, but that particular light is third does not have a printer installed. Work orders have also been in on these projects since at least December. This forces students to walk across campus and take computers in Malouf Hall or the Giovale Lab away from use for off campus residents. At the beginning of the year, many residents rooms network boxes were not operating, apparently due to a hub being turned off over the summer. Many residents had to wait weeks before the problem was corrected, and access to the campus network one of two emergency lights that are supposed to be on in the event of a power outage in the building. Without the light, the hall is darker and would be almost pitch black when an outage occurred. Residents also have to deal with a long walk to utilize a working computer Ub. In the dorms lab, all three computers have at least one maintenance issue some simple, others more drastic. One computers 3.5 floppy drive has been broken most of the year, another needs a monitor cable as well as has some software issues, and a . provided. Carleson also lacks recreational amenities that the other halls have. We do have one lounge with a big screen television, but the electronics have been on the fritz since at least December. A work order has been in since the problem appeared, but it has yet to be repaired. When it comes to other recreation amenities for on campus. Hopefully either the investigation of upgrading Carleson as a hall, or perhaps using it for another purpose entirely can be studied. 05 y)n AtRiPto f Brak 2005 MTV Spring may i.im: Inuite you and a cjuest speciaf aduance of residents, there is only one broken air hockey table in the third floor lounge. Residents have been asked to utilize the pool and fooz ball tables in the Shaw Center, but the tables arc frequently in use and are not available as many hours as tables in the other halls. Students who are off campus utilize the Shaw tables frequently, and access should be preserved for their recreational use while on campus. Hopefully these issues can be investigated and improved for residents. Whomever is at fault, it is confusing why maintenance requests were not looked into during the semester break, when no residents were to o screening 'v vr wv; v- Vo0 VUl THRCC TWC?OS AN SC At THC CCNtCR QT YHC ACTION AN? SCORC: to MTV t Vasts VlP Access 4 5600SPCWPWG CASH roort? c greet tho mere 1 S' trif. .03533; - So tt7 Srnm 8efc XiKt m tnjuci Ww 9 PU-A- ARfirVf tftra tnr on . NiMl f or w WI oMM a.N Iwf w', VW - - Jmmnt txxfVTVtKv m (?, T I ) ov, Nvovi 1! - A' VV . ADMIT M No W m.T ' Vy - K a v U&i X' "" WXt ' 1bn;Vin infx. vavs5 wonts a lojcukv suite in trb 1 C0 CAi I. 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