OH, THE horror. A number of residents of Brown College and the Gooch-Dillard residence area believe the Big Bad Wolf Housing Division has wronged them, wronged them bad. Students living in these dorms will have to (gasp) clean their own bathrooms. That's right -- no one will come any more to clean their soap scum, and the very idea has many students foaming at the mouth. Here's some great advice for those grappling with the unexpected situation: Quit your whinin'.
Residents leading the crusade against Housing are circulating a petition demanding a refund of the increase in housing funds from last year plus more money, adding up to over $200. They claim breach of contract and are thus demanding financial compensation. Unfortunately for them, though, it states nowhere in the terms and conditions on the back of the housing contract they signed in the spring that bathroom cleaning is guaranteed. What they're claiming, however, is more like breach of expectations -- they moved in expecting this luxury, not assured of it in writing. Well, cry me a river. They've got to face the fact that they have no legal recourse whatsoever.
Students in Brown and Gooch-Dillard are not the only ones in on-Grounds housing without housekeeping services in their bathrooms. Most of the upperclass apartments don't have it either. That didn't stop many other students from moving into them. Residents affected by the change aren't being singled out, and they should stop portraying themselves as the hapless victims.
Nevertheless, let's look at the "dirty" truth. It's almost a sure bet that a good percent of the people complaining just don't want to clean their bathrooms. How yucky. Apparently, students have become so dirty they don't even want to clean up after themselves. So someone else should have to do it for them. Puh-lease. They should buy some rubber gloves and Lysol and get over it.
Another argument against cutting bathroom housekeeping is that it might be hard coordinating the task between students sharing a common bathroom. That's walking a fine line between laziness and plain stupidity. For goodness' sake, make a schedule and talk it out. If anything, having more people should make the job easier and not more difficult.
By living in on-Grounds housing, Brown and Gooch-Dillard residents don't have that bad of a deal in the end. Cleaning in common areas will continue, and unlike a lot of off-Grounds housing, they still have the University picking up the utilities bill. The rooms come furnished. Someone will always come to fix that rickety chair or broken light fixture. These benefits should more than compensate for the minor inconvenience of having to clean the bathrooms every couple of days.
Perhaps the protesting residents' consternation has blinded them to the big picture. Yes, that would be the budget crisis. The Commonwealth of Virginia now is shouldering the load of a $1.5 billion deficit, and nowhere is the weight of that more significant than at the University. The school's budget must be cut by 22 percent for each of the next two years. As a result, students have so far seen an impact on printing services, tuition fees and library hours. Surely, these sorts of changes are of greater consequence than housekeeping in dormitory bathrooms.
Those taking action against the Housing Division should redirect their energy and time to other, more fruitful pursuits. Their selfish concentration on the fact that no one will be cleaning their bathrooms overlooks the possibility that the person who once did that might have reduced hours or no job at all in the future. And if the shortage of money got them here in the first place, the students might be better off campaigning for the bond referendum that will appear on the ballot in Virginia on Nov. 5. Although it might not guarantee rectification of the bathroom situation, passage of the referendum sure would make things a little easier financially at the University. Then again, residents could just take that pent-up anger and use it to make their bathrooms absolutely spotless.
It's important for residents of Brown and Gooch-Dillard to realize that nearly everyone at the University is making sacrifices. Something had to give, and in the end, that turned out to be the luxury of having someone polish their porcelain every day. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, but this small thing they're giving up will probably benefit the education they came here for in the long run. So to those griping students, the rest of us say: Clean up your pitiful act. Not to mention your bathrooms.
(Becky Krystal is a Cavalier Daily
associate editor. She can be reached at
bkrystal@cavalierdaily.com.)
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