In the 2007-08 Guide to Student Housing and Dining, you can see pictures of students just like you smiling, sharing a good book, enjoying television and enjoying their beautifully decorated room. You can also read about all of the exceptional qualities offered by each residence hall. Now, I’ll help you read between the lines of the 2007-08 “Living on Campus” booklet.

For this column I will be focusing on MacDonald West Residence Hall, number 83 on your maps.

Listed under Hall Environment is partial wireless, which in the case of Mac West means the computer lab. Yes, take your laptop to a room full of desktop computers. If this strange idea doesn’t seem very appealing to you, you’ll be needing to purchase an Ethernet cable, which can conveniently enough be found right here at our very own University bookstore.

Also listed under Hall Environment are the bathroom facilities on each floor. Now I’ll focus on the only bathroom in Mac West that I can enter, which just so happens to be on the third floor. The last time I ventured in there, three out of the six toilets were out of order, which for those of you not majoring in math, is half of the toilets on the floor. Ridiculous. Then we have the showers, which are perfect once you get past the two-inch gap between the shower curtain and the wall, which really isn’t a problem unless you’re afraid of the cleaning lady sneaking a peak.

Next we see the Room Environment, which according to the booklet consists of self-lofting beds, and apparently no problems at all. Well, the beds aren’t as easy as the appear, so much so that Britney Spears could lose 20 pounds in the time it takes to loft and un-loft one of these beds.

Here was my first impression of my room, the day I arrived.

I noticed that there was the dark black streak running across the floor, this was discouraging, but easily covered by a rug. Then I noticed a fairly large crack running down my wall, which again was fixable, with the use of a fantastic Jessica Alba poster. It was rather sunny in the room, so I decided to clothes the blinds, which I sadly found to be impossible, due to the fact that they were jammed and incapable of fixing by myself.

Then we have the “Special” feature of the hall, which included the infamous washers and dryers of the laundry room. $1.25 for the washer and 25 cents for the dryer. Only $1.50 that is if you like your clothes to look like they just came off a clothesline in the middle of Hurricane Katrina. Generally, for an average sized load of clothes, it takes about four cycles, that one dollar, to dry clothes. Now there’s something they must have forgotten to put in the booklet.

Then we have this past Sunday, which was a serious problem all over campus, for Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants fans especially, as we saw the cable go out. Depressing, that in a world of wet laundry, stained floors, and neglected bathrooms that such hardships must be endured. I later discovered this not to be the campus’ fault alone.

When I decided to try to figure out why a University that charges its in-state residents $15,000 a year, and its out of state residents $23,000 a year, had let Mac West become so neglected, I began asking questions. Unfortunately a chain of resident advisors directed me up a ladder of people who “knew more about it than they did” and would answer my questions. Eventually the Bowling Green State University Office of Residential Life politely declined the opportunity to answer any of my questions.

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