Lightning illuminates the scene as a thunderstorm rages through a dark city. A windswept Ellen Page hangs from the edge of a skyscraper, shouting to Leonardo DiCaprio as he holds his dying wife. Time is running out, will he escape?!
Suddenly, the scene stops. Aaaaaand… buffering.
It's amazing how badly DePauw's poor Internet can butcher this epic conclusion to "Inception."
Doesn't DePauw have the money to fix things like our Internet connections? Even if they didn't before, tuition is increasing by 6 percentv next year so surely they'll fix the dorms up then...right? A lot of people assume all college dorms are like this, but they're wrong.
At the beginning of my sophomore year, I made the very expensive switch from Indiana University Bloomington to DePauw. I made my decision for a better education and better peers and I've never regretted it. But despite paying almost 250 percent of my IU tuition/room and board to come here, my DePauw dorm room is smaller, in poorer condition and has worse Internet than my IU dorm room.
For example: IU has a wireless router for each group of four rooms. Humbert (widely regarded as the nicest dorm) has one router for 12 rooms.
My IU dorm was spotless when I arrived. My DePauw dorm had chunks of the carpet torn up, a huge black streak along one wall and a lovely gash across the ceiling.
Little issues like these aren't the end of the world, but we already pay in excess of $40,000 per year to DePauw and tuition is going up by a couple thousand dollars next year. Why can't some of that money be put into improving the dorms that first-years, independents and upperclassmen have to live in for nine months out of the year? The common areas and formal lounges don't need improvement. In fact, they're already incredibly nice but no one uses them. Individual rooms and the Internet are the issues in need of attention.
Greek students (a group which I'm now included in) are often quick to point out that the majority of DePauw students live in Greek houses, not school housing. True, but what do prospective students see on their tours? The college search is like rush: you tour a bunch of options, talk to some people, and decide where you could call home. Seeing a really nice dorm is a huge boost for that school in the eyes of a prospective student.
DePauw clearly appreciates the importance of having a good-looking campus; one look at East College will tell you that. The school also seems to have plenty of money, as anyone can tell after a tour of our holy ground of finals week studying (Prindle Institue for Ethics).
The DePauw administration has some really exciting ideas for the future, such as possibly building a new food court so the Hub can be transformed into our Great Hall (a la Hogwarts). Still, it's important not to get so absorbed in big changes that the little things are forgotten. Let's all do our democratic duty and complain to the appropriate people so the dorms can be improved and DePauw can be even more awesome place to live.
— Carter is a sophomore from Carmel, Ind., majoring in English writing. opinion@thedepauw.com