As the year wraps up, multiple student concerns and complaints about the dorms have come to light.
Some of these concerns are about the prices of dorms, the required meal plan for resident students, and issues such as not having hot showers in the Flynn dorms and lack of air conditioning.
Overall, there is one consensus among students, “Nothing is told to students until the last minute, or it’s not at all.” said user allisonsiravo on an Instagram NeuPress poll.
She is not the only one with a complaint about vagueness, as students have continuously been complaining about the university not being transparent enough with students.
There have been numerous complaints about the lack of communication and proper information from the university regarding problems that affect students.
My experiences at Neumann have been similar. The university’s communication and aid in any situation has been lacking. From what I have seen, there is a lack of general knowledge from staff and faculty as well.
When you get bounced around from person to person, trying to solve one simple issue, it can get quite tedious. Getting the help, you need should not be as difficult as the school makes it seem.
I feel that the student body in general can relate to these feelings of frustration as there have been all sorts of problems in the past semester.
One major one was when there was a broken boiler in Bachman (Bachmann) early in the semester, and the building was freezing. The university sent an email to faculty and waited hours to send an email to students.
Another presented itself later in the semester there were issues during spring break. The university failed to mention to students that parking lots would be rented out, and that there would be outside security for something that was never disclosed.
Even recently, there have been worries over the housing process and many students have been left confused.
However, there may be a reason for this issue. Students seem to not be voicing their concerns about such issues to anyone in a position of authority at the school. “I would say that students come to me more about personal things,” disclosed Diamond Camp, an RA at Neumann.
Students need to voice their opinions about issues that affect the student body. Nothing can get solved if the university is not aware of its own problems. An RA is there for students to talk to and address concerns.
There are other options as well though. The Franciscan Justice Circle always welcomes students' voices to be heard, and their goal is to learn how to advocate for issues that students find important. They have even been successful in making changes this year with a petition made with the Student Government Association.
The SGA also has money set aside for student use. If students lobby for their cause, the SGA can try to assist with funding.
And of course, NeuPress would love to get more students to publish work, and share opinions, having open meetings every Monday during the common hour.