Is the new freshman residence hall really new?
By Annalise Knudson
Students dream of dorming at college, even at a commuter college such as Kean University. Especially with the newly constructed dorm buildings, interested students saw the New Freshman Residence Hall (NFRH) as a luxury compared to the older, standard dorm buildings. Living as a first year resident student at Kean, housing has had its benefits and consequences.
Some students found themselves in a difficult situation when elevators were breaking often over a short period of time. Signs were placed on the elevator doors with the words, “Elevator Temporarily Out of Service.”
“I would have to leave to go to my class 10 minutes earlier to wait for the elevator for 5 minutes,” Ashley Solla said, a freshman who lives
in NFRH.
Solla lives on the eighth floor, making it difficult for her to take the stairs on a daily basis. Not only has there been a problem with the elevators, but also students cannot even do their laundry without at least half of the washers and dryers broken. From her experience in the laundry room, it is always overcrowded and people remove clothes from washers and dryers the second they end due to their annoyance and desperation. A sign was even posted on the door to the laundry room to go to the New Upperclassmen Residence Hall to do laundry, when only 2 washers and dryers were operating correctly.
“It’s annoying because they are constantly out of order or ‘down for maintenance’ and within a few days, they’re down for repairs again,” resident Alexis Fegley said.
Resident students are angry that they are paying much more money for the new residence halls instead of the older dormitories. With Whiteman and Dougall at a price of $4,136.00 a semester, the NFRH is $4.994.00 a semester. Many students do not want to stay in the dorms next semester because of all the problems the dorm’s building is having. Between electricity sometimes not working for no reason, or no hot water available, students continue to complain about the New Freshman Residence Hall.
When contacting the Residential Student Services, the Managing Assistant Director For Residential Facilities, Ronald Mompoint, confirmed what has been the cause of the problems with both the elevators and the washing machines. Explaining that the buildings, as well as the elevators, are only four-years-old. The elevators are fairly new and being used at all times of the day, every single day. With circumstances such as vandalism by residents, as well as elevators being a moving machine that cannot always be working correctly, the elevators need to be constantly repaired.
“We make sure we call maintenance and they come ASAP. They fix the problem in two hours. If a part is broken, it may take up to two days to deliver,” said Mompoint. “These elevators are going up and down everyday.”
Kean’s Residential Student Services is trying to resolve its complications with the elevators and washing machine malfunctions in the New Freshman Residence Hall. Students will face the problem of broken elevators as they decide whether or not it is worth it to climb the flights of stairs up to their rooms.