The Observer, October 5, 2007
Volume XL, Issue 6
Village fails to meet expectations
Since arriving at Case in Fall 2005, I've heard nothing but praise for the Village at 115. I've heard how environmentally friendly it is, how nice the rooms are, and how convenient everything is. After living here for over four weeks, I have to say that I have some complaints.
First, the door locks. Who in their right mind thought that a card swipe was the best way to secure a bedroom? Not a suite door, mind you, but a bedroom, so that if you go to the bathroom right across the hall in your suite and feel like closing the door, you better bring your key. I've already gotten locked out of my room twice, once because of my mistake and another time because someone else in my suite screwed up. Not only that, but when you go down to Wade to attempt to get back into your room, they make you fill out a "Lost Key" form, as if it is not right on your desk in your room. This costs $10. They give you a new key, instruct you to go find the old key and give it back, and then they refund $5. Here's an idea: hard keys exist for each of these rooms, what about simply giving a locked out student a hard key, tell him to go find his lost soft key in his room and then bring the hard key back? Why does a new card have to be programmed into the system? This makes absolutely no sense to me, and it's a pretty low blow to have the housing department, who is already charging you almost $1000 a month, gain a profit off of this.
Second, the trash dumps. What happened to a good old fashioned dumpster? Instead we have to walk to the trash chute (I don't even have one in my building, I have to go to the building next door) and shove a bulging trash bag down a chute that is way too small to be convenient at all. I would much rather walk down the stairs or go down the elevator to the basement and drop this garbage where it belongs directly, rather than try and force the bag down this pinhole. Also, for almost $1000 a month, would it be too much to ask for a weekly pickup? I know this sounds lazy, but there's really no reason to make something as simple as trash disposal this complicated.
Moving into a two-year-old building after living in Taft and Clarke my first two years, I figured that the wired network would be considerably faster and more reliable. Surely the Village was wired with state-of-the-art technology that would ensure I could get around the Internet (for normal tasks, such as e-mail, news, etc.). The other night, I ran a bandwidth test courtesy of CNet and found that my bandwidth was a whopping 45.5 Kbps, lower than most dial-up modems. I realize that this lack of service probably has nothing to do with the technology but rather the students who use more than their fair share, but something should be in place to limit bandwidth so that everyone gets equal bandwidth.
In the end, I'm not really sure why I'm paying nearly $1000 a month to live here. I don't get the incredibly fast Internet I used to have. I can't leave my room for a moment without remembering my key. I have to pay money if I forget my key. Did I mention there is no toilet paper? Yes, even though you pay all of this money to live here, you have to buy your own toilet paper, paper towels, etc. Other than the air conditioning, which, to be fair, works pretty well, I can't find one reason why I would want to live on campus again. The Case people tell you nothing about these issues, but I believe it is every student's right to know before deciding they want to live here when it becomes time. For me, I'm wildly disappointed.
