All colleges have their ups and downs, and dorm life is no exception to that. You can’t promise you’ll have a completely positive experience, but the dorm life on Bradley’s campus is terrible enough to make some want to transfer. From personal experience, my number one factor in my decision to look into other schools is the living conditions. There are three big categories that Bradley’s dorm life needs more than an improvement on.
Picking resident advisors
Resident advisors (RAs) are there to help with situations, mediate between residents, and be available to help residents feel more comfortable during their time in the dorms. Some resident advisors only do it because of the benefits it includes; therefore, they choose not to deal with the residents. My experience with RAs here on Bradley’s campus is they do not care about what happens in the dorms. It takes a lot of pleading and constant messages in order for them to be a little concerned with what happens on their floor. Yes, RAs are still students too, so they are busy as well but, being a resident advisor is also a job. Considering being an RA is their job, I feel they should be a little more eager to help.
Cleanliness
A dormitory is never going to be one hundred percent clean or perfect. However, the way these dorms look is unacceptable for anyone to live in. The janitors do not deep clean, but they do tidy up. The issue comes in when the people on your floor are nasty, and after complaining to the RAs nothing gets done about it. This also applies to things happening within the actual dorm room. Some people moved in with mold in their closets and drawers. Which alot of people complain has still not been fixed. Living with mold can make people super sick. So, why wouldn’t Bradley’s residential living try to fix it?
Broken appliances
It’s sad how many people decide to take their laundry to a laundromat around campus instead of washing it in their dorm building. It’s partly because they can’t. Half of the washers and dryers are out of order and when they get fixed, the other half go out. This is such an inconvenience because now people are fighting to find space to wash and dry their clothes. The elevators are frequently out of order as well. It’s no big deal for the people who live on the lower floors but imagine the people who live on the tenth floor of Geisert.
It’s sad to say, but this is not even half of the problems. However, this is a mild look into what happens in the dorms at Bradley University. For most, it’s actually one of the worst experiences they’ve ever had. Having a terrible living situation like the dorms can affect the way people are able to function in their classes. It can add on to the preexisting stress from being away from home, classes and any other personal issues people are dealing with.