I seriously try to avoid trashing people over internet posts for the entire world to see, but my outrage has not been consoled by telling only my close friends and my mom. I am too livid to just leave this to a simple "I'll live through it," because Colorado Mesa brags about their small campus sizes and their ability to accommodate and care for anyone for any reason. I seriously feel left out... and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
As we all know, students have the option to stay on campuses in the residence hall they live in over break because it is either too expensive for them to go home, or they need to be on campus for practice or, if your school is like mine, for those short winter break J-Term classes. I'm back on campus for a class that I didn't necessarily have to take, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I was at my dorm in the early evening preparing to go to a sporting event on campus, but when I went to flush the toilet after I had peed, nothing happened. I didn't have time to tinker with the toilet, and honestly didn't want to for fear of breaking the stupid thing more, so I left and went to the sporting event and had a fun time.
I returned to my dorm room late last night and found that my sink was lacking in water pressure. I had the knob on the faucet turned all the way up, but all that came out was puny stream not even strong enough to thoroughly wet my hands before washing. I told myself it was probably just a fluke until the faucet was turned on with no water coming out. My bladder yelled at me, telling me to go to the bathroom for the fiftieth time that day, and I obeyed only to once again find that the toilet would not flush. I rushed to my bedroom and opened my laptop planning to submit a maintenance request saying that we had no water, but I found an even worse surprise waiting for me in my inbox. "The water will be shut off indefinitely due to a water leak. We're sorry." This means that everyone in the dorm that is here over break, including me and my roommate, are left without water for an indefinite period of time, and all we were offered was a pitiful apology.
"We're sorry"!?!??! That's IT!? I don't have running water; I can't shower; I can't cook dinner; I can't flush the toilet; I can't poop because I can't flush the toilet. I mean, I could poop, but it would sit there and stink up the entire dorm, so no! I can't poop in my own bathroom. What am I supposed to do!? What about all of the other students that are here over the break that have no other resources; nobody to call and say, "Hey can I use your shower for an indefinite amount of time?" We can't even brush our teeth!
Needless to say, I am livid after reading that email. Of course, there are easy solutions to this problem, and obviously, it is not the university's fault that there was a water leak. I could buy gallon jugs of water and use them to brush my teeth and wash my hands, but I'm not going to spend $2 just to drown myself in water for a shower. I could even haul all of my things to the gym or a friend's house and take a shower, and walk to the closest building on campus to poop, but the solutions to the problem do not get rid of the problem itself. The fact that I, along with all of the other students in the building, have not been offered any sort of accommodations is the problem and it makes me furious.
Frankly, I am extremely disappointed that I have talked so highly about this university and all of its staff to only be let down due to their non-existent actions to help students when they have no water. I hope that action will be taken ASAP in order to help us students. Colorado Mesa needs to redeem itself for this fatal blow to its reputation.
