Cascade Hall is a big joke

By Shannon Cahill

Editors, the Gauntlet,

Re: “New residence unveiled,”

Sept. 30, 1999

Fri., Sept. 24 was the grand opening of the new residence building called Cascade Hall. It was implied in the article that all of the residents enjoy our new home. I feel however a point of view form another resident is needed. It is true that the rooms specially designed for physically handicapped students and chemically sensitive students are a real improvement, but what about the other 380 of us?

The first issue is our “rent.” Our “rent” is not $400 but $400 per month per person. For myself who lives in a four bedroom apartment the rent is $1,600 per month. That is not affordable to me.

Our building definitely has its faults. Some apartments have just received furniture (four weeks after moving in) and some windows aren’t even sealed around the edges. Let’s not forget that in some apartments the heating isn’t working.

We were promised many features of a new building (i.e. a fitness center). The fitness center is however a slab of concrete in a room located in the basement.

I know that I shouldn’t complain because there’s a fitness center located beside the Jack Simpson, but we can’t use the underground tunnels to access it. We’ve been told that it’s a security risk to go through one of the buildings. All the other apartments have access to the tunnel system and even other residence buildings. How can this not be considered a risk? What about our safety? Without access to the tunnel system, we can not walk home safely at night. Remember all the cases of assault last year?

Even the issue of cable TV has come up. We had cable for the first two weeks of the school year, but then it got cut. It now costs $200 per year to receive cable from Comm Media and not Shaw cable.

It could be thought that the building looks authentic to a “real” apartment. Yes, we have the features of one. The buzzer system allows you access to the building if you have a friend who is a resident. The problem with that is that we can buzz friends in, but have to go down to let them “in.” Our stairwell has a lock on the door and the elevator is soon to be installed with locks.

I do like the convenience of living on campus, but I don’t like being treated like an inmate. So instead of calling this place Cascade Hall, it should have been named Cascade Penitentiary.

Shannon Cahill