When a college student tell you they’re living in the dorms at school, I’m sure a multitude of images pop into your head.  Rowdy parties, tiny rooms, and community showers are probably among the most common.  When I was in college, I worked in the dorms at the University of Oregon.  I loved my job, and I worked to make sure everyone had a pleasant experience.  Unfortunately, most of my and my coworkers’ efforts went unrewarded when the UO ranked #1 for “dorms like dungeons” on a Princeton Review survey.  It made my job harder, and the brand image of the UO housing system suffered.

Yesterday, I was able to help my youngest brother move into his dorm at Western Oregon University.  As a former housing employee, I was disgusted by the state of things in Monmouth.  Here are a few images I snapped with my cell phone so you can see why:

In order to check in, residents had to walk through a hallway flooded with toilet-overflow. The rest of the lobby was vacant, and the check-in procedures could have easily taken place elsewhere ...

This particular dormatory was built in the 1950s as a dorm.  It was converted a few years later into offices because housing numbers had declined.  This year, though, it was reconverted into a dorm to house mostly returning residents.  This would be fine, except the building was obviously not ready to receive students.  First of all, there was initially no Internet connection available in the dorm rooms.  My brother received a letter a few weeks ago telling him he would only have access to a wireless network (for which he would pay $35 per term), would have no phone hookup in his room, and would not have cable TV.

We show up, move his things into his room, and try to hook up his computer.  One problem – no wireless Internet.  According to the “get connected” brochure on his desk, the solution to connectivity problems is conveniently hosted … on the school website.  On top of this, wall outlets are few and far between (actually making it impossible to plug in the built-in desk lamp) and he didn’t even have a name tag on his door.  Here’s a picture of the door to his room:

Could the school have invested a few dollars and minutes to give the doors a fresh coat of paint? No. The RAs had even marked the door as in "good" condition on his pre-occupancy report. I made him scratch it out and note the door as "fair." There's no reason he should have to pay for the obvious damages that were around before he moved in!

We were also able to find the TV lounge down the hall with the nice, wide screen plasma TV (the school’s apology for not having individual cable hookups in each room).  Two problems: 1) There’s no cable hookup in the TV lounge and 2) The TV was so far away from any outlet that no one could plug it in.

Yes, a lot of the things my brother’s room was missing are luxuries, but they’re luxuries afforded to students in every other dorm and even in the UO dorms so poorly rated by the Princeton Review.  None of this would have passed my or my supervisor’s inspection at the UO, and I’m dismayed by what this lack of pride in the environment says for the Western brand.  If the living environment of students is so poor, two questions come to mind:

1. What does the administration really value?
2. Where is all of the money my brother pays for housing going?

A third question, one even more important than the last, what kind of brand image does this move-in experience convey to incoming freshmen, students’ parents, and the loyal Western returners?