Maggie Dougherty
At the beginning of this semester, the members of my house had a whole host of issues with housing. To avoid diving into all the details of it, I’ll just say that it essentially boils down to problems of overcrowding in our house. However, my complaint isn’t with over- crowding itself, it’s with the way that the College responds to student housing concerns. By failing to support ResLife with the resources they need to address student issues, the College demonstrates how little they truly value the service houses on this campus. This is especially evident when you realize that people living in houses have to pay more than people living in normal dorm rooms.
And for what exactly?Overcrowded rooms? Toilets that need work orders every other week? The opportunity to clean our own bathrooms? Plagues of ants, wasps and bats? In all seriousness though, the higher price of living in a house restricts access for a lot of students who may otherwise join program houses. In fact, we’ve had individuals turn down offers to be a part of our program because of the financial burden. Obviously, ResLife does not have control over the prices of Room and Board, but the administrators who make decisions at a higher level do. If the administration really valued the work of the service houses, they wouldn’t disincentives students’ ability to join. Moreover, the College fundamentally undervalues the importance of
our houses. Not only do the houses allow students a sense of community within the larger college campus, but the service houses also make the college look good to the city of Wooster and to prospective students. houses like Men Working for Change house, the Cornerstone elementary house and the Commmunity Breakfast Program house all connect students to the greater Wooster community. Not only does this help combat the perception that College of Wooster students are stuck-up rich-kids who are too busy to care about the rest of the city, but many of these programs actually makeadirect,positiveimpactonthe community.I’m not here to argue for a total revamp of the houses, or even for major renovations. Despite all of the things I mentioned before, I absolutely love our little house, and I would never want to live anywhere else. However, when problems arise, it is really hard to address them because the whole Student Life infrastructure at our school is stuck in a never-ending, reactive cycle. We shouldn’t have to wait for problems to escalate to the extremes, or get angry parents involved, in order to get something done.
If the College could provide the ResLife Office with the resources and support that they need to help us, we could avoid so many of the issues that come up, but by leaving the ResLife Office — or any Student Life Office — on their own, the College administration creates unnecessary tension and antagonism between students and the staff whose job it is to help us. Issues arise because Re- sLife is only provided with enough staffing, funding and institutional support to put out fires as they come up, rather than to work proactively to preempt the problems. When ResLife can’t help, students feel abandoned and believe that the staff don’t care about our needs or, worse, that they are actively trying to make our lives worse. Angry about this, students often lash out at ResLife staff with personal and unfair attacks. Understandably, this can make staff members become defensive,which further makes students feel like their complaints aren’t being validated.
Don’t let the use of ResLife as a scapegoat for all of your problems distract you from the real issue here: the College’s fundamental underin- vestment in student services. If the College wants to brag to incoming students about all of the great work done by students in service and program houses, then they need to invest a little back into those pro- grams by supporting the Student Life offices that are meant to help us.