Dorm Life Essays - Dormitory, , Term Papers

Dorm Life Dorm Life Dorm life at Bowling Green State University is like most other colleges. Students that live in the dorms are known to become very close, often walking to classes together, playing sports, and staying up late for all night study sessions. The students that live in the dorms are in some sense, a society. Every person has a responsibility. Sometimes, if any one person does not complete what they are responsible for, the whole society has to pay. There can be many problems in a dorm. Students playing music too loud in their rooms after quiet hours, and not respecting others are examples of problems that only affect one or two people. Problems like leaving the hall a mess and leaving trash in the bathroom are problems that affect the whole dorm. By leaving trash in the hallway or in the bathrooms, the student runs the risk of being fined from the custodial services for having to take out the room trash. These fines are extremely harsh. At one point, a floor would be fined $11 for a custodial worker to have to pick up a pizza box. Other problems include plates, silverware, and trays from the dining hall winding up in the hallway, leaving the bathroom a mess, and vomiting. The whole floor is charged with this fine if the actual culprit isn't found. Durham 2 Dorm policy is to fine the students on the floor that the incident occurred on. These fines can become quite excessive, sometimes exceeding $500 per semester. A student cannot receive his or her final grades for the year unless these fines are paid in whole. This brings up the question, Is it right for all the students on the floor to be fined if only one or a few of the residents went against the rules? Should a few bad apples ruin the whole bunch? I think not. I feel that someone should address the problem by holding monthly, if not weekly meetings to inform the students that they need to take their trash out instead of placing it in the bathroom. Students need to be told that trays and all other silverware and plates need to be returned to the dining hall. Repetition is the key. If the solution is pounded and pounded into the student's heads, then they will begin to obey. A hall director could also keep the students thinking by reminding them how much the floor owes, and what their share is. Constant reminders will deter the students from breaking the rules. Another, the idea of Terri Capellman, graduate hall director of Compton Hall in the Kreischer Quad at BGSU, is to install cameras to catch the violators in the act. The sight of a camera watching the hallway would be enough to prevent trash being left in the hallway, potential acts of vandalism and theft. Either of these two potential solutions would work, but have we confronted the real question? Who should pay for all the damage that occurs in the residence halls? If there is an emergency after the hour of 12 a.m. to 8 a.m. on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday night, then an Emergency Maintenance custodian has to come and Durham 3 fix the problem. This person is of course paid for their overtime. An emergency maintenance custodian can be called in at any time of the night. If an emergency maintenance custodian is needed, then they are paid for 4 hours of regular time, no matter how long they stay there. The starting wage for a full time custodian is $9.93/hour. (Payroll Office Statistic) This means that the custodian was paid at least $39.72 to come in and clean up something that could have taken ten minutes to clean up such as broken glass. The students on the violating floor are charged for this salary. The custodians may say that the wages they are given for coming in at unacceptable hours of the night are legit. They seem extreme to me. I think that the custodians should of course be paid extra for coming in at such late hours, but maybe not as much as is said. A reasonable wage for an emergency maintenance custodian is