Part of the college experience is living in the dorms. You haven’t really lived the University life unless you fought tooth and nail to live in the Ikenberry Commons, also known as the Six Pack, and/or an air conditioned dorm your freshman year.

All new students under the age of 21 are required to live in University-owned or certified housing.

Naturally, these campus living arrangements don’t come cheap and the cost has only increased for students. Depending on students’ accommodations at their residency, they pay at least $10,000 for room and board.  

As a result of this steep cost, it seems only fair that students living in University Housing should be granted certain amenities and services that allow them to have a positive housing experience — so it’s a problem when the building service workers, who upkeep these residence halls, do not think students are getting what they pay for.

The Daily Illini reported today that a letter has been circulating the residence halls from University Housing Building Service Workers. In the letter, the BSWs state that the “lower standards of cleanliness” this year are not due to lack of effort on their part, but instead, as the letter states, because “University Administrators have chosen to prioritize other concerns over the usual standards of cleanliness to which previous building occupants were accustomed.” 

We believe this is an issue because the needs of students should always be prioritized to make sure that we are getting the best experience we can at the University — and our living arrangements are most definitely part of that experience.

So if there truly are lower standards of cleanliness in University Housing, that’s a problem.

In some instances, BSWs said jobs have not been filled to replace BSWs who have left and workloads have been doubled. These changes have resulted in some tasks being completed in half the time they would normally take, and instructions insinuating BSWs should do the bare minimum, such as “trash and dash,” have been given.

Not only are these circumstances inappropriate for the maintenance of residence halls, but they also demonstrate unfair working conditions for the BSWs. 

BSWs put a lot of time and effort into their jobs, and the quality of students’ experiences in University Housing would not be as good without them. They put in countless hours to make sure students live in safe and sanitary living environments, and the University needs to ensure that the environment under which they work is fair and satisfactory.

If the people who work to clean and upkeep the residence halls don’t think that students are getting what they are paying for, and if the assertions the BSWs made are all true, then there is most certainly an issue present. 

We hope that the University will look into this situation further to right some of the wrongs that have been expressed by BSWs.