By TYLER DALE
Staff Writer
Recently, during a dorm meeting between Ipswich residents and our Res Life staff, we were told that certain members of the Piedmont administration were looking for every reason they can find to convert Ipswich Hall into a women’s dorm next year.
They have cited things such as scuff marks on the walls and garbage in the elevator as reasons why those of us with Y-chromosomes should not be allowed to live there next year.
While I understand that this building needs to be taken care of, to punish our entire gender for the mistakes of one or two is preposterous.
Furthermore, this dorm has suffered worse neglect from the very people who are trying to take it away from us, and we have remained patient none- theless.
That is a testament of how much we appreciate Ipswich, not the scuff marks on our walls.
First of all, we have our parking situation.
The parking lot at Ipswich is small.
Very small.
And the nearest parking lot to us is all the way over at New Bedford.
And so, when guests park in our spots, we have to park far away and walk.
Things can get frustrat- ing, particularly when we get up the next morning for class and realize that we are parked somewhere else.
The fact that we had trailers taking two of these spots dur- ing the months we waited for a
dumpster did not help. At one point, we though this
problem would be rectified, when we received our Ipswich parking stickers.
However, the stickers have done us no good so far, considering that they aren’t enforced.
One night last week, when I got back to Ipswich after rehearsal, I counted twenty-four vehicles in our lot without Ips- wich stickers.
This was at 10 p.m., when “illegal” parking is at its worst. However, the parking is enforced at 3 a.m., when all of those people are left and the only ones who get tickets are the people
who actually live there, but parked in the handicapped spots because all of their parking spaces were already taken.
Despite our frustrations, we have dealt with this in hopes that it will get better.
However, there are no signs of our stickers actually being worth anything.
Even worst than that, however, is our fire alarm. Last semester, we had a ridiculous amount of false alarms.
I’m not sure exactly how many; I legitimately lost count. Already this semester, we
have had four. Instead of calling the com-
pany who installed our alarm system, someone has decided that the best course of action is to send someone to tell all of the residents to close their shower doors, so that the steam doesn’t set off the alarm.
This is not a solution.
This is someone not doing their job.
Once again, though, we’ve remained patient in spite of this.
There is a certain irony that the residents of Ipswich have been accused of neglecting our building when we are the ones who have endured through these much larger issues.
Our patience in spite of these circumstances speaks much louder about our appre- ciation for this building than some trash in the elevator.