The execution of garden apartments are indicative of a set of larger problems.

While the idea of taking empty basements and turning them into basement-apartments seemed like a desperate measure to some, it was nonetheless necessary. But it didn’t even happen.

Now, I have witnessed firsthand the pointless bureaucracy involved with the garden apartments. I was at the FUSA Senate session where Vice President for Student Affairs Mark Reed explained the housing plan that he was planning to enact.

It took the better part of two mind-wrenching hours to explain. After that, it was time for questions, which had all the happiness and joy of a root canal. So painful was this mindless bureaucracy that afterward, in my mind, I knew I was done with all things FUSA related.

Let me clarify that Fairfield University is a school with its star on the rise. In the past 50 years, Fairfield has grown into an academic establishment that can be mentioned in the same breath as its fellow Jesuit schools, and while the University still has plenty of room to develop, it has done in 50 years what took others hundreds to accomplish. However, while the University’s award shelf has more than enough space to be filled, the same can’t be said for the housing situation on campus.

The ratio of students to rooms is starting to become a little scary. Nowadays it seems like everyone has an extra roommate who they wouldn’t have had in past years. I did, and I cannot tell you how much I now envy my cousin, who as a freshman at Georgetown University, has a double with a private bathroom.

If you find one of those on this campus, check for unicorns.

This doesn’t seem like some impossible enigma either. The solution actually seems a little obvious: since it’s apparently impossible to accept less freshmen, build another freshman dorm. That didn’t happen, for reasons that were not properly communicated to the undergraduates.

Instead, what we got was a plan that would give the Jesuits a new building, convert the old Jesuit residence into a new Kostka for the seniors and then transform the townhouse basements into new “garden apartments.”

I’m not even sure what “garden apartment” means. I do know, however, that most upperclassmen didn’t want to see their basements go because that meant the townhouses would lose their sex appeal, even though the cellars had already been sealed off.

Truth be told, I don’t even care about the whole basements being locked thing. If that one wooden staircase goes up in flames, everybody in that basement is going to be even more royally screwed than the girl who spends a Friday night with Prince William.

So, on that note, I can’t accuse the Office of Student Affairs of being incompetent; it’s not, although it is overzealous when it comes to safety. I am of stout opinion that the state of affairs, with regard to housing on this campus, is being mismanaged.

Housing on campus is, and will forever remain, a pertinent issue. It can be the do-or-die decision for any prospective student, as well as for any undergrad who is thinking of transferring.

I am honestly bothered that I don’t see the matter being treated with the attention it deserves. Last semester, all the attention housing received was meaningless, and what’s the point of jumping through hoops if, in the end, no one will do anything?

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