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Maybe if they decorate…
After receiving not one but two ominous mysterious tips about so-called “lounge rooms” in Nussbaum,
“This summer they made all the Nussbaum floor lounges into rooms. The problem is that the rooms have windows the width of a golf ball. I can barely breath, let alone sleep. Still paying 9K a year to live here. HELP”
“I am livng (sic) in one of the lounges in nussbaum that they made into bedrooms. The room is so poorly ventilated that I have to sleep with my door open or else I get coughing fits from the chemicals used to finish to floor. I am still paying $9,000 a year. This is disgusting.”
We took it upon ourselves to knock on doors in a desperate attempt to blow off CC reading conduct some serious, hard-hitting investigative journalism.
With the exception of two lounges on the fourth and ninth floors, all of the floor lounges in Nuss. were transformed into singles this summer, ranging from barely livable to Harry Potter cupboard-under-the-stairs status (i.e. 125 to 105 sq. ft). The tips allege tiny windows, poor ventilation, and outrageous temperature hikes, all of which were verified by a quick jaunt through the rooms.
Most of the residents had no clue what they were walking into. Many of the students had just returned from a semester off or abroad. Expecting a small but bearable single, they instead found rooms characterized by a hallmark 2 ft window and a marked temperature increase of precisely 20 degrees. Said one resident, “I thought, Okay, it’ll be a smallish room, but I didn’t know I would come to what was a lounge and has zero ventilation. When you come into the room, it doesn’t even look like there’s a window.”
Interestingly enough, four of the six residents were on some sort of financial aid (one was unavailable for comment). Granted, almost half of Columbia students are on some sort of fin aid so it’s hardly definitive proof of institutional bias, but at least one student considered financial aid at play in the proceedings.
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- Basically all you see when you walk in. Capacious.
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- A nice little nook to cozy up in on a rainy day… lol.
Tiny little room with tiny little flowers via Shutterstock
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14 Comments
@Aren't you glad you moved off campus?
@111sqft checking in “barely livable to Harry Potter cupboard-under-the-stairs status (i.e. 125 to 105 sq. ft)”
125sqft is barely livable? what campus do you live on?
@81 sq ft here Those lounges really are dark though
@Anonymous As for paying $9,000 for this room… have you thought about if Columbia set housing prices based on quality of room? Like if a resident in a McBain shaft double paid a third as much as a bright single? It is a better room after all, and there’s something odd about splitting a room saving you like 25%, or maybe less, I don’t know the exact details, they differ by building.
But then that would consign students not of means to some dark, low rent rooms and sections of rooms, and you know that people not of mean are more proportionately people of color, and yeah.. you see where this goes.
Columbia should find a way to house everyone in something reasonable, but until they do, you’re going to have to pay comparable prices for junky rooms.
@Anonymous they used to
@Anonymous Yeah, only in some places, like Hartley/Wallach.
@Anonymous Columbia needs to stop taking so many students.
@Investigative Journalism? “Interestingly enough, four of the six residents were on some sort of financial aid (one was unavailable for comment). Granted, almost half of Columbia students are on some sort of fin aid so it’s hardly definitive proof of institutional bias, but at least one student considered financial aid at play in the proceedings.”
Really?
@Anonymous They were all (100%) students that took a semester off or studied abroad. When that happens, you are no longer guaranteed housing when you return. It was actually nice that Columbia tried to find room for all of these peope. Its amazing how stories can be twisted.
@Wrong Students who study abroad or take medical leave have guaranteed housing when they return.
@anon The windows are that small because it prevents people from jumping out them when they find out they are living in a shitty dorm room for the rest of the year. #thanksNSOPGirl
@Not cool Way to trivialise mental illness
@Anonymous this is also means we don’t have the lounges/communal spaces in nuss that we were expecting…..
@Anonymous Half population fin aid, 4/6 in the sample. Bias confirmed, eat shit statistics