A favorite pastime of mine is to check my e-mail between classes, because you never know what excitement it could bring you: a funny joke, a scholarship, canceled classes, the list goes on. This past Wednesday (March 4) was no exception. It was full of excitement, especially the e-mail from our hall director of Helser, Suzanne Harle, or “Q” to her friends. This e-mail was to inform us off the additional $5 that will be tacked on to our next U-Bill for the exterior door latch, which was taken out of commission this past week.

This $5 charge, that will be enforced to every resident for anything considered vandalism to an exterior door at Helser, came about after the initial locking of the doors.

Earlier this semester, residents were taking apart the doors piece by piece in retaliation for locking the doors in the first place. This was the consequence to put a stop to it.

The e-mail stated some quotes out of the Terms and Conditions Handbook. This was taken out of the second paragraph, “Your residence hall will be ‘home’ for nine months of the year. This is where you will study, sleep, make friends, socialize and relax. Living in a residence hall requires compromise, consideration and sharing of responsibilities.”

I agree with this. Helser is our home and it’s our responsibility to keep it in decent shape and maintain a healthy living atmosphere. However, please explain how this justifies charging everyone in Helser $5 for an $8 part found at your local Ace Hardware store?

I have no problem paying for the door latch, but when it’s going to cost me and everyone else in Helser $5, that seems outrageous. Granted, I haven’t been back home in a while, but the last time I checked, if a door latch was broken at my house, my brother, mom and my dad didn’t each have to pay for it — we pooled money and purchased one.

If we are to “share responsibilities” in our “home” like Terms and Conditions proclaims, the door latch should cost everyone in Helser less than a quarter to get replaced, not the soon to be enforced $5 each.

Eli Perry

Sophomore

Materials Engineering