The Grove is Quinnipiac University’s newest residence hall designed to foster community through intentional and cutting-edge architecture. The process to live in the building includes a simple short-answer questionnaire and the determination to take action through a research project that students complete throughout the school year.
The reward for such work is access to The Grove’s facilities: modern, fully functioning kitchens and appliances, various study nooks and conference rooms, entire rooms dedicated to relaxation and massage chairs and individual bathrooms and showers.
If you couldn’t tell, I am a thriving Grove resident. During the nearly two months I’ve spent exploring all my building has to offer, I’ve only found one issue. It would appear that students who do not live in The Grove often visit and use the facilities intended for residents.
I’m all for having friends over to watch a movie or to swing on the hammocks outside The Grove, but my main issue is when students from other dorms find their way into our building on their own and have no respect for the space.
I would love to hang out in The Grove’s massage room, but I’m deeply discouraged by the litter left on the floor and across the seats of the room. The trashed tray of decomposing chicken wings and discarded utensils do not make me feel overly welcome.
Almost every day when I trudge to one of the nearby bathrooms, shower caddy in hand, equipped with my shower shoes, I have half a mind to turn right around. I find personal belongings, left by outsiders, abandoned on the sink counters and torn-up toilet paper decorating the bathroom floors
There is an alarming disrespect for other students’ homes here. It’s obvious that the majority of students using these facilities don’t have any interest in keeping them clean, nor do they have any respect for the custodial staff. The most concerning fact is that some of these shared spaces, like the massage rooms, are not cleaned by staff and nobody seems to notice. It is not their responsibility to pick up the tray of chicken bones left in the corner and it will sit there for days on end. It is our responsibility to clean up after ourselves and to keep these spaces decent for everyone to use.
When I hear friends expressing their excitement over our building, I’m more than happy to invite them to play foosball on the third floor or to bake cookies in our kitchen together.
The problem is when my fellow residents tell me about the other students they let in the building. Usually, they take their “everything showers” in our bathroom and leave. I feel these non-Grove residents don’t share the same respect residents should for our home. Why would they? It’s not like they live here and share the responsibility to keep it clean.
Unfortunately, I’m not even sure how this issue could be fixed. You can’t persuade adults to care about their cleanliness habits on a random Wednesday. Each of these special rooms in The Grove are already locked behind Q-Card-activated doors that only Grove residents should be able to access.
The solution might be announcements made by RAs threatening consequences until Grove residents stop letting their friends use our spaces without responsibility. I hate to say it, but taking away privileges to those facilities, even for the whole building, might be the only way to inspire students to clean up after themselves.
While I wait for the entire Grove population and beyond to realize they left their moms and maids at home when they moved to college, I’ll have no choice but to continue to avoid our ruined spaces.
