Dear Editor,

A residence hall: For many students at Drexel it’s a home away from home, as well as their first time living on their own. Many freshmen walk into their hall on the first day with high expectations but are quickly disappointed. Missing doors, broken windows and cockroaches have been reported in many halls. As time goes on, these dreadful conditions only get worse. While these qualities sound more like the description of an abandoned building, many students like myself are unfortunately forced to live in these conditions. What makes this situation even worse is that most residents are paying an average of over $1,000 per month to live in these conditions. Drexel residence halls are in deplorable condition, but who is to blame? Many students are eager to point the finger at maintenance or housekeeping staff, but in reality these conditions are the fault of no one other than ourselves. So what can we do to improve our quality of living?

One major thing we can do to improve our quality of living is to treat the halls more like our home. The residence halls are home to over 92 percent of freshmen at Drexel, and yet students continue to destroy their living area. So what can we do to treat the halls with more respect? One thing we can do is pick up after ourselves. Whether it’s hair in the sink or trash in the hallway, if we all do our part to clean up after ourselves, we will find the conditions of the halls greatly improved.

Besides simply picking up after ourselves, another major thing that can be done to improve our quality of living is to treat one another with respect. It can be a simple “hi” when passing someone in the hallway or just waving to a maintenance employee. These simple acts of kindness matter because people are much more likely to have a sense of accountability when they know their neighbors. For example, instead of leaving a gum wrapper on the floor, someone will think twice and pick it up. Even the smallest acts of kindness help to build a community and improve the sense of responsibility.

The general rule to treat others the way you want to be treated can be applied to taking care of the residence halls. We should treat our things and public shared places, like the lounges and bathrooms, the way we would want to see other people treating it. This causes a cycle. One person will see someone picking up after him or herself and will feel compelled to do the same thing.

Most of the maintenance issues at Drexel are not the fault of the staff, but of the residents. If everyone cleaned up after him or herself and treated property with respect, we would see a great improvement in the quality of the residence halls at Drexel. Until students are willing to be responsible for themselves, conditions of the halls will remain the same.

Christina Wilkins
Drexel University