I love Notre Dame with every fiber of my being. The education is top notch, football games are a blast, the religious aspect is wonderful, the campus is beautiful and the general Notre Dame community is very welcoming and open. However, I do have a problem with one aspect of Notre Dame: allocation of funds.
It seems like every other day there is a new building or dorm being built or extravagant upgrades around campus. All I want is for Notre Dame to spend some cabbage on things that actually need fixing. Off the top of my head, I can name a few.
First of all, could we please, please, PLEASE fix the water that comes down South Quad to Fisher and Pangborn? I just want to be able to turn on my sink and not have to use water that tastes and smells like eggs. Every time I brush my teeth and rinse my mouth out I feel like my teeth are going to fall out. Instead of buying random black poles to put around campus for seemingly no reason, could we just fix the water? It is the most basic of necessities and it drives me nuts that it is still so terrible. The worst part is, even if you have a Brita water filter, the sinks are so shallow that the filter does not fit under the faucet!
Another problem that I know is plaguing everyone on campus is the awful printers in the DeBartolo hallways. I can't even count how many times I have been late to class because the printers break right as I am trying to print my documents. When I do finally give up and leave the printers someone always yells, "They're printing now! They're fixed," and then the printers only print one document and freeze again. My heart can't take the ups and downs of the hallway printers! On the other hand, it does tend to spice up an otherwise boring day.
Speaking of DeBartolo, it seems like every stall in the bathrooms has locks that do not go all the way into the doors so the doors just fly open while I'm trying to do my business. If I am unfortunate enough to not have a bookbag to hold the door closed, I have to awkwardly hold a leg or hand up to keep the door closed. I've heard complaints from the women-folk as well. Why, oh why, can't we have bathroom stalls that lock?
These are just a few of the complaints I have about campus, but I'm sure others have many more. These are very basic problems that should be fixed by a university with an endowment as large as ours. I have managed to last these past three years here with only minor annoyance, but please Notre Dame, spare future domers the torture of smelly water, awful printers and stall doors that fly open while business is being conducted.
Anthony Pavlov
junior
Fisher Hall
Nov. 5
