The cheapest residence at King’s costs $6,982 for roughly seven months of occupancy. The most expensive one costs $8,700. And for these amazing prices, students living in residence can expect false fire alarms, 15 C rooms and toilets that can’t handle number two.
A semi-crappy dorm experience is a rite of passage of the mythologized collegiate experience. Annoying roommates, obnoxious neighbours and dingy showers are experiences that incoming first-years dread, but are hopefully prepared for.
Not all residence problems are dismissable though. A line exists. And that line is crossed often at King’s. This is especially disappointing at a university that prides itself on its on-campus community.
I live in Middle Bay. Over the past month, my roommate and I have started playing a game called What Temperature Is Our Room Today? The answer is always lower than the temperature that HRM By-Law M-200 dictates tenants’ dwellings must be, which is 21 C. During the coldest period of the winter, it was below 15 C for multiple days. We wrote our FYP essays bundled in bed rather than at our desks.
The frequent fire alarms at Alex Hall in the late hours of the night are beyond troublesome and cast doubt on the reliability of the fire safety system overall. After the fifth false alarm in the dead of winter, students have the right to be upset.
Showers regularly do not have hot water at certain hours of the day (or, on some days, never do). I am embarrassed to confess that I have had to skip a shower or two because I missed that day’s hot water ration. I have since learned the secrets of the temperature schedule.
As everyone knows, Cochran Bay is its own can of worms. The toilet forces students to go to the A&A to handle business, spotty Wi-Fi means using up all of your data for your daily scrolling and the threat of falling ceiling tiles in the foyer constantly hangs over residents’ heads. These are all common complaints that aren’t just born out of pettiness. If students in residence had the same protections tenants do, none of this would fly.
It’s important to remember where these complaints are coming from: the student body of a university charging above-average tuition for degrees that are less than guaranteed pathways to employment. Being able to attend a school like King’s, where learning for learning’s sake is often the goal, signals a level of privilege. Reading Catullus’ satires on living conditions in Rome certainly put things in perspective. There are many worse places to be than in a kind of crappy university dorm. It isn’t wrong to say that certain things are unacceptable, though.
My intention isn’t to knock King’s too hard. I love it here — most of us do. That’s why we tolerate it. That, and maybe we’re too young and scared to complain. But regardless, students deserve comfortable, livable residences. We’re already paying for them. We can handle mice, toilet seat pubes and occasional mysterious fungal growths in the sink, but things are getting out of hand. The fixes might not be simple, but they are necessary.
King’s, we know you love us. We just wish the shower water burned half as hot as our love for you.
