By
The Wildcat Opinions Board
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Sometimes college brochures and recruiting campaigns paint a much lovelier picture of the campus than they should. But that's OK. They're ads for the campus, and sometimes ads... embellish a little.
Students at the University of Arizona, however, get a little more of a rude awakening than the palm-lined brochures prepare them for.
This campus is torn up. Classes are hard enough to find without being re-routed and sometimes misguided across the university.
And there's not enough parking. And it's hot. And it's uncomfortable.
Oh, and 80 students are stuck in an off-campus hotel until their intended homes are built - a delay caused by Residence Life changing plans mid-course.
Surprise, surprise.
The number of students in residence halls is up 10 percent from last year, and to accommodate the masses of incoming freshmen and returning dorm dwellers, construction crews have been working for the past eight months to add on-campus living space.
But the university - even after telling students that Pima Hall may not be finished when classes start - has gypped students out of the college experience they banked on.
Regardless of how hardened and cynical college may have made upperclassmen, almost everyone can remember the first few anxiety-filled days of freshman year. Residence halls are designed to satiate any apprehension and create a community.
"Typically, students who live in residence halls do better academically than others do. Also, it gives the students the opportunity to get to know others," Residence Life Director Jim Van Arsdel told the Wildcat this summer.
The misplaced students have been put up at the Plaza Hotel, 1900 E. Speedway Blvd., but the Plaza is a business. It is a business that cannot accommodate the kind of community building that takes place in dorms during the first days of school. It is unreasonable to expect them to provide the space or the environment a dorm does.
Residence Life officials know the campus community is beneficial for some students - they are trying.
Most recently, the university temporarily leased several area apartment complexes and Van Arsdel said two new residence halls and two new apartment complexes will be built.
But it is reasonable for students to expect their beds and kitchen and lounge and living space to be prepared by the time they arrive in Tucson - regardless of warnings that Pima Hall may not be complete.
Residence Life has been chasing their tails for years, trying to catch up with the perpetual increase of students.
The University of Arizona needs to take the example of Pima Hall's fickle plans and get things right with the next Residence Life escapade.
Let's hope the blueprints for the new dorms and new apartment complexes are more concrete than Pima Hall's. Let's hope we don't have dozens more displaced students year after year after year.
