Page 44 - Phoenix2001-02

Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - Page 8 COMMENTARY Residence halls plagued by Fire alarms are not funny students' dirty hands experience with a 4:45 AM fire to sleep through the noise. or take their sweet Erin Romanski discusses her time picking and a jacket out shoes before alarm on Homecoming weekend. blazing the Arctic. Twenty minutes later, had it been a real Michael Wiles laments the fact because every public building here has soap What homecoming weekend would be that the residence hall bathrooms in the bathrooms. What r cannot understand complete without the parade down Main fire, the building would have gone up in Street, the Green Terrors winning big at the smoke, along with its inhabitants. lack soap and paper towels. ~~e~~~~':~~~~t~~h~:~~:~~c~n:ee~i~~~~; football game, and oh yes, the fire alarm The main issue ,here though is not so I understand we are at war, but I am not feel that testing something out in the fresh- in Albert Norman Ward HaJl? much the annoyance of climbing out of bed, going to talk about it. What good, really, men dorms is a good idea. Not to knock the the bone chilling weather, or even being could come from me sitting here talking' freshmen in any way, but experience has ripped from a deep sleep not long after fi- about how this national nightmare never shown me, as r am sure it is has shown many nally passing out maybe one hour prior. ends, and how there is really no end in sight? people, that the freshmen dorms area breed- Moreover, it's the fact that the alarms them- No good at all. For that reason, I am going ing ground for immature and just plan un- selves are not exactly strategically placed to talk about wise practices. throughout the building, but one in the hall. For those of us living in a suite, some- Then again, J live in a upperclassmen times closing the outer door, the sound of dorm where people urinate on the toilet pa- the 'alarm fails to register "fire" in our in- per supply, so my point that upperclassmen toxicated brains right away. Therefore, had are more mature is, well, not even remotely it been a real fire, and not the cause of some valid or even based in fact. bored college student, most of us would What shocks me most about this whole never have made it out In time. But that's matter is that, for $26,000 a year, a decent ok, because as I was informed by one fellow portion of which goes toward housing, we Yep, at a.m. on Oc- student, residence life wholeheartedly en- have to live in inherently unsanitary condi- tober 21, someone found it necessary to courages us to bring our own fire detectors tions. When I contracted mono my fresh- wake-up the sleeping, exhausted, not to men- to school. How nice to be left with the op- men year, despite not having coming directly tion hung-over residents of ANW. By play- tion of preventing your own cremation. in contact with a carrier, [ was shocked. ing a middle school prank, they succeeded My point is that whatever message the Now, having lived on this campus for most in doing just that. Alright, fine, we get it. culprit was trying to get across or attention of the last two and a half years, I fully un- Ha ha. Joke's on us. This would not even When I first came 10 WMC my fresh- be an issue had it not been about 40 degrees received, it was ineffective. derstand how this sort of thing can happen, men year, I was surprised to learn that the Fahrenheit outside. And most pajamas do Whoever has nothing better to do with and have in fact seen it happen again and Residence Life Department did not supply again. not prepare you for the Nordic cold. their time than to rouse a bunch of cranky the resident hall bathrooms with hand soap. Why else would practically the whole In addition to the unbearable weather college students out of a sound sleep needs When I asked my RA whether or nOI their campus get sick at the same time? The mes- conditions, the reaction times of the nearly to take up a hobby. would be soap placed in there soon, he sage is clear: at WMC, you pay to watch out unconscious residents was not exactly up to -Erin Romanski is a sophomore laughed at me. par. What's more, some people continued English major . for yourself. Now that I am an RA myself, military action is just I fully under- stand his en- joyment of my ""--~~"'-~-- fense Secretary Rumsfeld saying that question. military has been very careful in It would civilian targets despite the fact seem that Resi- Taliban has been I dence Life, for In fact, he said on "maturity rea- sons," has re- frained from dispensers in the residence halls as a policy, based on the idea that if soap were problem in given to SLU- light of all dents, they that is going might do on in our col- something evil lective lives, with it. ... like but it is truly kill the germs on their hands. Residence just on more little defeat, one more little kick, Life, as of late, has been entertaining the and one thing to be angry about at the end of idea of .£Iacing soap d.lspensers..ln..RQuzIT_the day. Hall and Whiteford Hall, at least on a trial I arn.not sure about everyone else, but, basis. what with all that is going on These Now, r can understand the logic behind could sure use one less thing to be angry this idea, at least to a point. It would not about at the end ofthe day. ~~: ;:~~:~~~~l~ s~~:~~~:~!~el~~~~e~:!: -Michael Wiles is ajunior English as that sort of thing ~~r"ij=5F=1JI==7:;~=:;::~[§~i~ni==~I~~~~~;::::::~ might give even offered the new students a bad impres- prisoners, sion of the school, which would be "ofo;,_-+-I-':'':::I how you could argue your point-of-view for the Phoenix.