Special interest housing coup
After reading this past week’s Loquitor, I realized that I have been jaded. I realize that people are probably sick of hearing about Residence Life and all of the controversy surrounding the situation. However, I am responding to the article in the Loquitur that was titled, “Special interest housing encourages community.” I am, supposedly, living in Intensified Study. Last spring, during room selection, I picked a room in Intensified Study, where I expected to be living with a group of people that would have similar expectations as myself. How wrong I was! Not only I am living with people that did not even pick Intensified Study, but the rules that I requested by living in Intensified Study are not even enforced. Then, when I try to ask people to respect the rules, I get a harassing note under my door. Immediately, I knock on my RA’s door to begin to correct this situation. My RA, basically, pretends to care. She tells me how we’re going to have a hall meeting to discuss this problem, as well other problems. Now let me tell you, I got this note in January and I’ve yet to see this meeting. The day after I get the note, I head to Residence Life because I prefer to show them the note myself. I talk to my RD, who photocopies the note, and then proceeds to do nothing. So what does article in the Loquitur have to do with my situation? I find it very ironic that Shayla Hasic-Stamps says “The school will support any positive, learning and living experience on campus that provides a different learning and living option,” but has never supported the current Intensified Study environment. Because of the lack of authority, I have had to endure numerous comments, situations, and harassments by some of the other residents that live around me. Who’s to blame? Quite frankly, I am not sure. On one hand, the RA is to blame because she should enforce the rules that are set by Intensified Study. On another hand, Residence Life Directors are to blame because they should have responded to the harassment that I received. Let’s add a third hand and blame the residents on my floor who prefer to ridicule and harass me rather then be the adults that they claim to be. How ironic it is to endorse the very thing that you won’t support!
—Candice Marple
Denied a voice
Don’t get me wrong, I love Cabrini College and I love all that it stands for. That is why I feel a need to make the Cabrini community aware of Residence Life’s failure to communicate. Up until March 25th, I never had a bad thing to say about Cabrini. My arrival to Cabrini as a first year student could not have been better. I was greeted at the door by all of the Residents’ Assistants (RA’s) in Woodcrest, one of them being my own, Catherine Pirrone, or as we all know her as Kat. I was fortunate enough to have an RA who did all she could to help make me and the other girls in Woodcrest feel at home. There were endless nights that we shared stories about our past which helped break down the barriers that separated us. The girls came to know Kat as our confidante, authority, doctor, teacher, and older sister.
When told that Kat had not been rehired as an RA for the upcoming year, the residents of Kat’s hallway, on our own free will, wrote letters to Mr. Carpenter stating the reasons why we believed Kat deserved to be an RA for the years 2002-2003. Never did we dream that those letters would be listed as a reason for Kat’s removal. Kat’s termination was something that we, as a floor, felt was unfair and that somehow, somewhere Residence Life had made a mistake. Simply put, we wanted answers. However, when questions were asked, we were met with intimidation and ignorance.
Kat’s termination completely blindsided us. I frequently have heard the word “community” spoken throughout the beliefs that Cabrini holds so dear. In the essence of community that Cabrini prides itself for, they have failed to communicate with the residents of Cabrini College. Through this, Cabrini has broken down and cheapened what they stand for. In this situation we have been denied a voice. The only glimmer of light that I have seen so far was in passing, when I met President Idarolla. She has been the only person who has offered her ears and has told me she would look into it. Even though I am still waiting, I trust that she will do the right thing. I want Cabrini to be like the Community I have imagined it to be. I guess I will just have to wait and see.
—Kim Reagoso
