From mold, power outages and broken A/C units to sagging ceiling tiles and “mystery stain” colored linoleum floor tiles, I, along with others, have experienced a myriad of issues while living on campus.
Complaining achieves nothing. How can residents work together with Residential Life to improve everyone’s quality of life?
Four major identifiable and solvable issues currently create such a negative on-campus residential life experience: poor move-in conditions, the inability to check on ticket processes on the FIXX portal system, charged fees and unscheduled room checks.
The solution is to create a student-led organization, the Resident Advocacy Association (RAA), with specific goals to address these issues.
ULM has a “White Glove Program,” which is supposed to inspect rooms before move-in and ensure they are ready. Aside from the web page, I have yet to find evidence of its existence.
Rooms are not move-in ready. This is evident from the state of the rooms, with the need to fill out an entirely blank inventory and condition form detailing any preexisting damage or be charged at the end of the year.
The FIXX ticket system is opaque and outdated. The university should upgrade it with a system that lets you see and follow up on your open tickets and previously submitted tickets.
Residents can also be charged damages as a penalty; in addition to not having an exhaustive list, the logic behind that list is also not disclosed. This leads to excessive fees, such as $500 to get assigned a room.
Lastly, the university’s “Health and Safety Checks,” as currently practiced, infringe on students’ rights outlined in the ULM Code of Student Conduct (3:01:19).
Current checks are conducted randomly between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. This time frame outside of school hours is unreasonable and in contrast to 3.01:19, which includes the “right of privacy including freedom from unreasonable [search] relative to…on-campus living.”
With your support, the RAA could implement several changes:
1. Ensure that the rooms are move-in ready by performing pre-fall move-in inspections to certify room readiness and by assisting residents with the inventory and condition form.
2. Petition for the FIXX system to be upgraded to show the status of all submitted tickets.
3. Petition the administration for greater residential fee transparency.
4. Petition the administration to recognize residents’ rights and protect them from unreasonable searches.
Supporting the RAA can improve our campus and strengthen the bond between residents and the university.
By uniting as residents and sharing a collective voice, we can make the world a better place for us to live and for future generations of Warhawks.
If the RAA is a cause you’d like to support, join or learn more about, contact Bryant J. “BreX” Breksa or Madison Langley via email.