Danielsen Hall is cast as the outsider dorm of Boston University. Distant and dilapidated, anyone who lives in the dark halls is resigned to being separate from a lot of campus buildings and other dorms. To make matters worse, Danielsen is in a serious state of disrepair. There are rats surrounding the dorm, many heaters are in disrepair and paint is chipping off the walls. Partially due to a lack of study areas, it becomes increasingly difficult to foster a typical BU dorm experience in such an isolated part of campus. With a building literally falling apart, one would assume Danielsen Hall’s renovation would be a top priority for the administration to tackle.
However, plans to renovate Danielsen haven’t materialized. According to an article in The Daily Free Press today, the administration had proposed a new Student Village III and renovation plans for Myles Standish Hall and the Myles Standish Hall Annex instead, all included in the Master Plan Notification form. In addition, the renovation of Myles would result in fewer beds than before the work is done.
The primary reason why another Student Village development is needed is to meet the rising demand for on-campus student housing. As the size of the student body increases, the chances of getting a dorm on campus that students are content with become much more challenging. Other details outlined in those proposals included a renovation of the School of Law, and a new building adjacent to Morse Auditorium. While these new developments would definitely add value to BU’s campus, allowing Danielsen to fall further in disrepair is unfair to many students who pay copious amounts of money to live on campus.
Evidently, the governing body in charge of delegating money to campus development needs to review its priorities. While new housing being constructed will certainly be valuable for housing more students, the inequality of cost and quality will only hinder students’ housing options. No student should have to live with radiators making more noise in the room than its inhabitants. One can only hope the administration will see to these changes before the building has to just be sold, further perpetuating BU’s housing woes.
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