Upon entering college as a freshman, you can be sure to look forward to at least one thing: a dorm. Look forward to, that is, cramped quarters, questionable roommates and strange noises from next door. By senior year, you’ve grown used to it, usually.

The recent announcement that some upcoming juniors and seniors will be housed in hotels because the new dorm building is unfinished, then, seems aptly timed. Wouldn’t we all want to live in hotel-quality rooms? Comfy beds, our own bathrooms, fluffy towels. It seems leagues better than the residence halls.

It will be a rude shock for those lucky few to go from hotels to their new dorm building. But then again, housing at Case Western Reserve University is always a rude shock. Its incompetence should never surprise us, yet it always manages to. From floods at the Village at 115th to unfinished buildings, housing is clearly showing us it needs reform.

But what sort of reform? For one, communication. CWRU should have informed students before the very last minute, with many students’ housing plans already made, that they would be postponing the new residence halls. Two, allow more student input into dorm design. The new building looks and feels like a retread of the other North Residential Village. So much for thinking beyond the possible. And even being a boring box with ugly brick siding, it still will not be done on time.

If housing cannot even build us buildings, can they ensure us safe spaces? What about the promised gender neutral housing? It has been implemented, but it is worrying to hear housing can’t even keep up with the influx of new students, let alone new students needing specialized accommodations.

CWRU’s housing is inadequate, outdated, under-supplied and over-worked. This example clearly shows that this is only the tip of the iceberg of problems in CWRU housing. We spend much time in residence halls as students, yet they often fail to serve us well. Grimy showers and dusty rooms are not ideal for learning. Constantly fighting to make your living area better leaves little time for study.

Zak Khan doesn’t even go here anymore, but they have a lot of feelings and angry barking.