After Campus Residences evacuated Roosevelt and Kelly Quads last winter over some broken pipes and a pesky lack of heat, residents thought the worst of their troubles were over. Little did they know that the new year would bring new problems, new inconveniences and new safety hazards.
Residents of Roosevelt Quad spent two hours on October 25 without power, only to find their hot water would be lost as well. Not that they could check their email for updates when they had no power and are the only quad on campus without wireless Internet.
The following night, they suffered another power outage. The kicker? This one outlasted the generators and emergency lights, leaving hundreds of students to lurk the halls of dark, unlocked buildings without working fire alarms. Resident Assistants confirmed that they had to spend the night patrolling the hallways for fires. Residents complained that by the time they got power back, they still couldn’t shower in their own buildings because of the lack of hot water.
Campus Residences has made no form of apology to these students either in the form of an email, for which they’ve become infamous, or in the form of a monetary refund.
President Stanley has already advocated raising tuition. But on a campus that forces most passers-by to scoff at the incessant construction, that can’t finish one project before starting another, and maintains a ranking on The Princeton Review for unhappy students, whom does he plan to attract? Perhaps prospective students can step on a rusty nail and be moved by the swift and painless tetanus shots at the SBU Medical Center. (It’s right next door, guys!)
President Stanley, you would never send your kids to an institution with this much rampant ineptitude. So take control. Campus Residences is charging students more than $6,000 per year for dormitories lacking basic 20th-century technology, and they show no remorse. What do you have to say for yourself?
Students, you’re being taken for a ride by a university that your parents fund with their tax dollars. But your only effort towards standing up against such mistreatment is creating a Facebook group. It’s a cute start, but it’s time to make your statement into a campaign.
You want reimbursement? Write a letter. Stand outside of President Stanley’s office until he has no choice but to listen to you. It’s on the third floor of the Administration Building. His office number is (631) 632-6265.
Pissed about those e-mails that “thank you for your patience”? Call the guy who writes them at (631) 632-6750 or the campus residences financial director at (631) 632-6921. Tell them, “Patience my ass!”
And Campus Residences: Take $6,000, divide it by the number of days (including weekends) in the school year, and multiply it by the amount of bullshit you put your residents through every year. Send a check for that amount to each affected student, and beg for our forgiveness. It’s time for you to answer to us for a change.
The Stony Brook Press
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“Campus Residences has made no form of apology to these students…”
How is this the responsibility of Campus Residences? Campus Residences is not charged with the maintenance of electrical transmission lines on this campus, especially in the location where the failure occurred. Further, when you lose power at your home, does the local utility company issue an personal apology? I know mine doesn’t. Unfortunate incidents like the outage are prone to happen, especially when infrastructure is aging. It is inappropriate to blame any specific University department for such incidents.
“..scoff at the incessant construction, that can’t finish one project before starting another…”
Clearly, the author(s) of this article are unfamiliar with the procedures of Capital Planning.