Student Government, in collaboration with the Department of Residential Life, is working to increase on-campus residents’ awareness of how to file complaints about their on-campus housing.
Sen. Meghan Hanna, chairwoman of the Academics, Athletics and Administration Committee, said the current method of communicating instructions to on-campus residents is ineffective. “Most students, when they move into the dorms, they get a big stack of papers of everything they’re supposed to know about living in the dorms,” Hanna said. “And for whatever reason, maybe they’re anxious, they don’t read through them. We wanted to take away the red tape and make the lines of communication more efficient.”Many students living in residence halls had difficulty reporting problems to the Department of Residential Life, according to Hanna.”The main thing was they had a lot to say, but they didn’t know where to go to submit those issues,” Hanna said. “So more than anything, we wanted to raise awareness for where students can go when they have cleanliness or maintenance issues. Now, we’ll have better two-way communication, so it won’t be as bad.”Hanna met with Steve Waller, director of Residential Life, on Nov. 18 to discuss more organized ways to inform on-capus residents of the avenues available to them.”We talked about sending out e-mails in the beginning of the semester outlining all the options available to them,” Hanna said. “We also discussed table-sits, where members of their community councils would be available.”Waller could not be reached for comment before press time. Jenny Kornuta, president of the Residence Hall Association, said there are several outlets available for students wanting to voice their complaints. “If residents have an issue, there are numerous avenues for them to utilize,” Kornuta said. “They have floor representatives and community councils; they have in-hall professionals such as Residence Life Coordinators and Graduate Hall directors who live in the halls with them. There’s also desk assistants for them to go to, and the Residence Hall Association is also there.”Kornuta said suggestion boxes and door-to-door visits from Resident Advisers were also possible solutions to the lack of communication. Kornuta said the large amount of freshmen students living in residence halls could explain the disconnect between on-campus residents and Residential Life. “They’re unsure of the lines of communication,” Kornuta said. “Once I lived here for a while, it became obvious all the different ways to talk about any issues I had. It’s just about getting to know the atmosphere of the community you’re in.”Hanna said the AAA Committee worked all semester to collect student input concerning problems with on-campus housing. “We talked with students to get their opinions,” Hanna said. “We sat outside the dorms and collected pictures from students living there. And we worked with the Freshman Leadership Council, who reside in the dorms.”—-Contact Katie Kennedy at [email protected]