My fellow Odyssey teammate, Katie Hiegel wrote an article similar to this for our school newspaper. She phrased it much more poignantly than I. Check it out here.

2 out of 4 of the bathrooms on our wing, meant for 36-72 people, break down constantly. Our forty-year-old dorm swelters with heat in the summer (we have no A/C), and freezes in the winter (cold air pours out of the "heat vents;" we also have to vacuum dead spiders out of those as well). Maintenance visits our floor at least twice a week to fix a flooding toilet or a broken shower. Ceiling tiles in our lobby have faded to a gross brown and drip water. Friends have reported finding a mouse in their room and having to deposit creatures such as frogs out of the lobby. My friends in a fellow dorm claim the showers literally burn them every time they step into the stall.

Our dorm does provide a vacuum similar to the one pictured above (from the 1970s). It emits a burning smell every time someone uses it. It's patched with enough electrical tape to function, but sparks emit every time someone plugs the ancient vessel into the wall.

Our dorms badly need maintenance funding, but my hall doesn't look like it'll get repairs anytime soon. Considering my school paid for a new Student Center, raising tuition 4% to cover the costs of the building (even though it had an immense amount of donors), our 1970s vacuum will apparently get 40 more years of use until our hall finally crumbles apart.

This isn't just a Taylor University-specific problem.

According to the Atlantic, "Universities and colleges collectively face a shortfall of a record $30 billion for what they variously call 'deferred maintenance' or 'deferred renewal' to deteriorating buildings and other infrastructure." Yet, somehow athletic programs such as Auburn University's spend $13.9 million on a football stadium (despite a $17 million deficit from the previous year). And, the very same school cut $5 million from maintenance.

Something doesn't add up.

The cost of living in dorms ranges from $8,000-$10,000 a student. Considering living in an apartment (at least double the size of our rooms in college) can cost less than this, where does all the money for maintenance go?

My college specifically likes to save nickels and dimes every chance we get. We implement hand dryers instead of paper towels to cut down on paper cost. We combined and cut departments to lower school expenses, and our cafeteria gets creative (a little too creative) with spare, cost-efficient ingredients.

That being said . . .

We don't want the newest, most powerful vacuum money can buy. We don't want ceiling tiles plastered with gold and marble toilets.

We just want mouse-free dorms. Water mold-less ceiling tiles. Toilets which flush, showers which do not burn the skin, and vacuums that suck in debris rather than spitting it out (and vacuums preferably from a year in this century).

We just want to live in a dorm which doesn't fall apart.

We want to cost of living to actually cover that -- living.