It is time someone speaks out about this terrible building.

I am a junior at Columbia, and I’ve had fewer than three classes that were in Kent. However, every time I am unfortunately forced to endure this building, I come out angrier than before. This has nothing to do with the departments or classes in this building, but everything to do with how inaccessible and intolerable it is. 

Somehow these stairs seem steeper than any other building. There are only five floors, yet it feels like a skyscraper when you’re asked to walk one floor up. What happens when you have to walk more than one floor? Well, there is a convenient elevator the second you walk into the building, but it is hidden by construction and takes at least ten minutes to start moving. Of course, you have to press the button once it reaches the floor you’re on, because for some reason it doesn’t register that it’s already been pressed. But, hey! At least once you get in, it is the smallest elevator on campus, and you have to stuff in with every other student that is disgraced by the Kent Hall elevator.

I brought my Kent Hall hatred up to someone the other day, and they went on a tangent about the ID process. I’ve had to go to Kent for a new ID a couple of times, and I remember how much of a labyrinth it felt like to get there. The person I was talking to spoke about how long it also took them to find the ID center, and how confused they still were when they found it. I really just don’t understand why the ID center is here in the first place, considering the whole building feels like it has been under construction since I got here. You can’t have a terrible elevator and a basement maze. I can’t handle it.

Class in Kent isn’t any more tolerable. I overheard my professor recently speaking about the room they were in, and to no one’s surprise, they were venting about how small the rooms are for seminars and how it makes little sense to put them in there.. not to mention that every room is constantly at a brisk 90 degrees. I really just don’t understand you, Kent. I kinda feel bad.

On a more positive note, there is a prize for tolerating this building: the bathrooms. These bathrooms are spacious and always clean, and I am always surprised by how modern and wonderful they are when contrasted with the irritation I feel in every other area of the building. I will give you that, Kent. You have great bathrooms.

Kent Hall, I want to root for you. You feel like the underdog to me, and I promise I try to stay positive when I walk in. Sometimes it just feels impossible. I hope the construction is finished eventually, even if it’s after I graduate, and every other area is as wonderful as the bathrooms. 

Kent via Bwarchives