Home Sweet Home

The now visible construction of new dormitories for the Southern University Baton Rouge campus has many students exhaling with relief.
According to many students, the current conditions of some of the 14 dorms scattered across campus are unlivable.
“The dormitories have a family environment but need major work in the area of maintenance and cleanliness,” said Whitney Ford, a senior business major and former resident of Bethune Hall.
Ford’s sentiments are shared by many other SU students who said they hope the new dorms will be completed in time for occupation in the fall 2007 semester because of long standing problems they say they’ve had with the maintenance and up keep of the university’s current withering dormitory buildings.
“The dorm’s water was always too hot or too cold,” said Lindsay Allen, a senior psychology major from Alexandria. “That’s the reason why I left.”
Allen said not only do the buildings need reconstruction, but so does the attitudes of some of the university’s housing department personnel as well.
“The director of residential housing had a horrible attitude,” Allen said.
She also said everyone in the office seems to carry on the same unprofessional attitudes with the exception of the receptionist.
“The dorms should be torn down and new dormitories built,” said Marvin Newton, a senior therapeutic recreation major from Milwaukee.
Tatiana Cooper, a junior nursing major from Atlanta and resident of Totty Hall, said the dorm she lives in is filled with insects and she once reported to have seen a leach.
“The walls need to be painted and the dorms need to be cleaned because the floors are filthy,” she said.
Cooper also expressed her discontentment with personnel in the Housing Department also.
“(They) act as though they can care less and basically tell you to deal with it,” Cooper said. “The Residential Housing department needs fresh leadership.”
In terms of complaints, Marilyn Hill, interim director of residential housing, said the housing maintenance department attempts to handle all complaints the students report within 24 to 48 hours if possible and the supplies are readily available.
In reference to the opening of the new dorms, Hill said students should be able to move into the dorms no later than December 2007.