As of my last billing, I’m paying $46,000 annually for my higher education. Let me repeat that:’ $46,000. I’d like to point out that this sum, while staggering, is not beyond my means. What I don’t understand is why the services at Northeastern seem incapable of smart decision making. NU Housing requires that we get our housing down payments and sign-ups completed a semester in advance. I knew my fall roommate before I met my Summer I roommate. Now, normally, I’d let sleeping dogs lie, but it turns out I like my summer roommate and I’d like to room with him again. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have on-campus housing for the fall, and since everything’s already locked in, I’m going to get shuffled whether I like it or not.
Does this make a whole lot of sense to you? Two students, both of whom have the money, both of whom will be taking fall classes, both of whom are already housed in a dorm that is active in the fall ‘hellip; and both of whom must move out at the end of the summer term, one to get shuffled into yet another glorified cupboard, the other to maybe not even receive university housing.
I briefly mentioned ‘The Shuffle’ previously. I’d like a moment to share that particular aneurysm with everyone. Moving from one university housing arrangement to another is perhaps the most senseless thing I’ve ever heard of. For any students who don’t have an army of friends or family to help them drag the entirety of their possessions across the breadth of the NU campus, my heart bleeds. I personally enjoy doing said move, on my own, in the middle of summer, when the previous tenant of the room I’m moving into decides to wait until 4:30 p.m. to leave (as allowed by NU’s requirements) and I have to move in on the same day, and of course I have to be at work at 6 p.m.
I’d like to add a brief word on a few things that don’t make a lot of sense to me. Were a total of 11 gigantic-screen TVs in the dining halls really necessary, when my dorm room floor is slanted at a 30 degree angle? I have to prop my bed up with notebooks (I would use text books, but I had to sacrifice my younger sister on an altar to pay for those) in order to sleep without rolling out of bed and bashing my head on a desk, because there’s barely enough room to tiptoe sideways through that cupboard of a room, let alone fall out of bed with dignity. Was the re-planting of the huge swath of grass in the middle of Centennial Common really so much more important than fixing the mandatory five non-functional treadmills in Marino Center, or maybe buying some more so we can all get our run on?
I’ could go on, but really, I’d rather not waste the breath. In conclusion, for nearly $50,000 from each and every student, do you think, maybe, we can get some useful changes?
Form follows function. Not the other way around.
‘- David McMahon is a senior English major.
