I am currently residing in 110 St. Stephen St., and I have been having quite a few problems the last couple of months living there. When I first moved in I tried to overlook the mold and rust on the carpets, and the caving in walls all over the apartment because I thought that perhaps the cost of living there would make up for it. Recently I have discovered that the price that I am being charged for one summer quarter in 110 St. Stephen St. is more than a spacious, fairly new, off campus apartment by the Prudential. I am not normally one to make too much of a fuss, but I am honestly pretty fed up. Not only are my carpets a mess and my walls caving in, but I have had many problems with my water including it being either brown, ice cold, or scalding hot at all times. Also, besides the interior work that needs to be done to the apartment, the building is infested with mice and, now, to my utter disgust, cockroaches. I am not talking about small roaches that could easily be removed, but ones that are approximately three and a half inches long. Now, this is why I am writing this letter. I understand that the buildings are old and do need to be repaired, and that we do live in a large city, but I don’t understand a few things. One would be: why aren’t the prices reflecting the poor living conditions? Another would be: why is the university investing money into such trivial and unnecessary things such as more bricked pathways and a “Mondo Subs” in Ryder Hall. I understand that these things make our campus look better, but there are many more issues of so much greater importance that should be addressed first. I currently know five people from my home -town of Syracuse, NY that have been seriously contemplating coming to this establishment. When they were making their final choices between Northeastern, Boston University, Boston College, or Wentworth Institute, they came to me for some final advice. My advice to them was to choose one of the other three universities in Boston because frankly I am at times embarrassed of the way that this university treats its students. I am sure too that these five students will tell a few more of their younger friends and so on and so on. After the fall semester I am not sure that I myself will be returning to this university. I have begun to look at other colleges to transfer to. So I guess the point of this letter is a question … what, if anything at all, does this school plan to do to help with this housing dilemmas?

-Vanessa Smith is a sophomore communications and art major.