 "Photo: Photo by Stephen Moccia/The Ram")
The new dorms have been the talk of campus for two years now and, contrary to most of our expectations, were actually ready to begin the school year without delay (excepting the original one from spring 2010 to fall 2010). Knowing all summer that I would (hopefully) be moving in on time this semester, even I have to admit that I was actually excited about something Fordham had to offer entering my final year here. Upon arrival, I of course had mixed emotions.
I live in a four-person singles suite and have so far seen other four-person and six-person doubles; the differences are subtle enough to not matter much.
My general impression, having lived in Campbell Tower 1 for two weeks now, is that some really cool ideas were implemented in the construction and room design, but there are an equal number of aspects that go against any notion of common sense.
First, the cool stuff: to start with, the microwaves and oven are phenomenal – they look great and work even better – the stovetop is much roomier than in other on-campus kitchens and the faux wood in the kitchen, furniture and counters is beautiful. The lobbies of the apartments are spacious, the furniture is great and I have to say, as dumb as I originally found the sink-outside-the-bathroom idea, I can definitely see its merits now. The coffee tables act more as cubbies, with two-to-three sections in each plus the space on top, and the lighting fixtures are (for the most part) phenomenal for dorm lighting. The bathrooms, especially the showers, are very roomy as well, and the floor-to-ceiling windows are pretty neat. Of course, the dishwasher is probably my favorite.
I'll excuse the locks on the bedroom doors – I'm sure someone on campus will use them one day, and they don't get in the way enough for it to matter to me either way. I haven't had a single problem with the wireless since it was put in a few days after I moved in early, but that's probably more attributable to the replacement of the hellish imp that was Cisco Clean Access than to the dorm. Campbell Café of course looks great, and I suggest everyone trek over to this side of campus to try it out – even just to lounge for a while – that is, when it's actually open (10 p.m. is way too early to close a coffee shop); don't plan to sit outside like at the Grille, however, as there is absolutely no seating despite a beautiful, wide walkway perfect for doing so. While we're looking outside, the brickwork does look a bit out of place next to Walsh Library and Martyrs'.
I mentioned that some things went about as far against common sense as possible – so sit back. All the usual idiosyncrasies of Fordham are still present – lawn mowing outside the windows at 8 a.m., facilities keying into rooms (regardless of occupants' gender) at the same time without warning and watering the grass to the point of turning the lawn into an impassable swamp, just to name a few.
On top of that, however, is plenty more. The biggest annoyance thus far has been the 10 a.m. fire alarm testing; on a college campus, anything of that sort needs to wait until after noon at the least – and the booming noise it makes is just awful, worse than the high-pitched screeching of every other building's alarm. As for the kitchen, there is too little counter space, no drawers whatsoever (why would anyone want their silverware in a drawer?) and the kitchen placement in each room is just strange – ours sits in an already-narrow hallway and is right across from two of the bedrooms; some others practically block access to the hallway when being used.
I mentioned earlier that the sinks being outside the bathroom has turned out to be useful – but some rooms require walking halfway down the hallway to get to them from the bathroom, even if you want to look in the mirror, since there isn't one with the shower and toilet. Of course, at least every room has those somewhere – my bathroom was completely missing a door handle for a week, and even now the one we have has no lock.
The actual construction and layout of the new buildings looks great from the outside, as anyone can tell, but once inside, things come down to reality a bit. The stairwells have nice tiling up to the second floor, but from there everything is, for lack of a better description, puke green, and is definitely going to start hurting my eyes any day now. The paint throughout the dorms may be the cheapest I've ever seen – it peels and chips almost without a touch and is too thin to cover up measurements written on walls during construction.
The nooks in the walls are not more odd than any of the infamous nooks present than any other dorms, but the ceilings were clearly mismeasured prior to construction, as seemingly random juts push out "to hold the air-conditioning and other pipes; stuff you really can't take into account when building, you just have to wait and see after you've started," according to Resident Director Danielle Bagatta.
My main issue with Campbell is the clear absence of something promised last semester that I should have known was too good to be true – cable jacks in each individual room. Administrators may say that was never (officially) in the plans, or that they meant in each suite, but The Ram reported in our March 10 issue last semester that there would be "cable television hookups in all rooms in the apartment, as opposed to the setup in Walsh Hall, where each apartment has only one connection in the main living room" – and we don't just make stuff up like that. On top of which, several students I've asked about it have answered that they remember individual cable jacks being promised.
Finally, as opposed to Walsh, in which every room receives "plus-one" lounge furniture, meaning that there is one more seat than people living in each dorm, Campbell offers a "minus-one" policy. I haven't gotten a straight answer on this one, but suspect the official one would be a mix between not enough to go around and each piece costing more than those in Walsh. It was a nice gesture to provide high-tech landlines in each suite, but as no one on campus uses one, getting phones as expensive as these appear to be is a little unnecessary.
I'll leave out all the complaints I've heard and hold off about the attitude toward residents and community-building thus far, as that is more about Residential Life than housing itself. All things considered, there are, of course, some things that could have been better, some that were done well and others that are (hopefully) still works in progress, but I have to admit that the buildings have far exceeded my expectations and I am happy to be living in what is clearly the best residence hall on campus. I have to commend Fordham for surpassing expectations for once, and I certainly hope this is the beginning of a long-lasting trend on campus.
Mark Becker, FCRH '11, is a communications and meda studies major and business administration minor from Wilder, Ky.