Clean washing machines, dryers, sinks, showers and A/C are expectations that we all set for wherever we might be living. For those who are lucky, you might have the luxury of a kitchen sink, noisy refrigerator or an unreliable dishwasher that floods in City Vista. Regardless, if you’re on campus and there’s a problem, your first instinct is probably to call maintenance and get it fixed. However, at a certain point, it’s the responsibility of the institution to buy sustainable machinery, as well as the students to be able to maintain and take care of the machinery. Both the institution of Trinity and the students themselves seem to struggle with taking care of these vital pieces of technology.

I’ve heard numerous accounts of students finding black mold in their dorms; I know I did when I was living in C.W. Miller Hall. This is fully on the institution to provide cleaner ventilation systems and nobody is at fault except for the university. Not to mention that in City Vista, the sinks are connected to the dishwasher, which has caused a lot of problems with flooding dirty water as well as the development of mold in dishwashers and pipes. There should not be mold in any instance; it is incredibly toxic and all around disgusting.

Though when it comes to the washing machines, the university isn’t the only one at fault. Many students straight up forget to take out their laundry, don’t clean out the lint, throw students wet/dry laundry on the floor and sometimes even steal other people’s clothing. Yet, Trinity puts forward little initiative to solve these problems, as well as leaving little to no room for maintenance service until a dryer catches on fire.

Another notable issue here at Trinity is the quality of water pressure and consistency when switching between hot and cold water. I recall the showers only being cold when living in Miller for an extended period of time, as well as something always getting stuck in the drain causing the shower to flood. Similarly, the consistency of the sink drain is also not reliable. Just FYI for fellow students that shave: be weary of the fact that the drains here clog very easily.

This is all exacerbated by the fact that students must live on campus for the first three years of Trinity experience. This, in a way, traps students into (sometimes) toxic and detrimental conditions, all while facing the academic rigor of Trinity that they might not be prepared for. Additionally, since students are forced to stay on campus, there’s no incentive for the school to pay for better facilities because there is no competition. The only real competition that might exist is the Atlee, but even then, students are still constrained by the three year housing requirement.

This notion of sustainability is especially important if you’re sharing washing machines or dryers with a larger number of students living in the dorms. The City Vista apartments, while being arguably the nicest place to live on campus, also have a great deal of problems that I myself have had to deal with. All in all, Trinity needs to use some of that endowment money to make living at Trinity more enjoyable, not only for the academic success of students but also because of the amount that most students are paying to be enrolled here.