OPINION: Negative experiences living in the MSU’s McCullough-Trigg Dormitory

*Columns are the opinions of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Wichitan as an organization.*

Triston Ogier was the winner of The Wichitan’s In My Opinion Column Contest. 

This semester has been an interesting one, with a snowstorm barreling through and COVID restrictions being lifted in Texas. Along with these events, this is my first semester living in the McCullough Trigg dormitory on the MSU Texas campus, and my experiences have been negative. Let us start positive though, because the dorm isn’t all bad. The shower works well, whereas the ones in Legacy Hall do not. Okay, now that the good experience has been listed, I will move onto the bad.

To start the negative side, me and my roommates have an air conditioner that does not work correctly. Whenever it is turned on, it makes a loud mechanical sound, while making little progress on altering the temperature. My dorm room does not get as cold as a house with no power, but our air conditioning reflects whatever the temperature is outside. During the cold weather, I had to wear two layers and two heavy blankets to sleep, so that I could rest without getting too cold and shivering. My roommate has put in a work order form for this, but no response has been given yet.

This next issue is also related to the cold. When I write about what is next, I understand that the staff was under unexpected stress, and I do not want to make them sound like they are completely in the wrong; I am explaining my side of the story. During the snowstorm this year, a pipe burst above a couple of rooms in the dormitory. One of those rooms, of course, was mine. I was not present at the time of the incident, but my suitemate luckily was. He alerted the campus to this issue, and they quickly got working on it. This quick action by the university was appreciated, and I don’t think a pipe bursting above my room is the university’s fault. The part that was not handled well was the communication.

If my roommate had not told me that the room was flooding, I wouldn’t have known it was going on, because the university never contacted me about it. Soon after, my room was vacuumed by staff and they left without giving me a word about the situation. I was left with a soaked mattress, some ruined items and missing or damp ceiling tiles. I was able to get a new mattress a couple of hours after the incident, as well as confirmation that the school still wanted me to stay in the same room and that I needed renter’s insurance if I wanted to have any reimbursement of damaged items. I am not someone who makes a big fuss over things such as this, as it does not bother me too much. I understand stuff happens and rules are in place, but it would have been nice to know that MSU requires such insurance in order to replace damaged items.

Today, there are still ceiling tiles missing in my dorm as well as tiles that are damp and smell of mildew. I am apparently used to it, but when others come to visit, they tell of the smell. I was told that workers are supposed to come in and replace a lot of the ceiling and the mechanics within, but nothing has happened yet besides the occasional short visit from some workers who are checking the ceiling out. Overall, if it weren’t as expensive as it is to live on campus, I would continue living in the McCullough Trigg dorm over the other buildings. These experiences have not deterred me from staying there, and I enjoy having a personal bathroom as well as other commodities provided there. These have just been my negative experiences in this interesting semester.