By Bianca Dinkha
As the new semester begins, many students have returned to their everyday routines while confronting new challenges. Resident Lexa Galarza describes the residence halls and clogged sinks while commuter Reyna Valencia discusses her time navigating campus and large class sizes.
With over 700 new freshmen students this year, DU appears to be densely crowded across various aspects of campus life, including parking, class sizes, housing, and long lines at the Cyber Café.
Galarza shares her experience living in the cramped, un-air-conditioned Mazzuchelli residence halls, with a regularly clogged sink.
“I think this is the year that we’ve had the most students try to dorm here.” she said. “I don’t think there’s any floor, or any part of the dorms that aren’t occupied. We have a full house.”
At DU, residence life comes with its trade-offs: students must choose between having a functional sink or air conditioning as the residence halls are not equipped to offer both simultaneously.
“My sink has been clogged three times,” she said. “Sometimes I put in a report, and it takes a long time before someone comes to my room to get it fixed. They don’t do those small bits of maintenance over the summer. They should have people go up to the rooms and do short preventative maintenance.”
Living without air conditioning on hot summer nights in 80-degree weather is equally uncomfortable.
“The first couple days was super hot.” she said. “At night, I couldn’t even sleep because it was really hot without AC.”
Valencia offers a contrasting perspective, recalling her experience managing a crowded campus and adjusting to large class sizes.
“Most of the people that I have seen have been freshmen,” she says. “There’s so many people I know that go here, and I haven’t seen any of them. There’s freshmen everywhere.”
According to Valencia, not only do the hallways seem fuller this semester, but so do the classrooms.
“I actually have bigger classes this year,” she said. “Two of them are packed; all seats taken. I’d say about 28 people per class.”
Despite the challenges, Valencia remains hopeful about the start of the academic year and is ready to be back in school.
“Although my anxiety hit me, at the same time, I am so excited to start off again.” she said. “It’s a mix of both. I want to make a good impression on my professors and start off the year right!”
bdinkha@my.dom.edu
