Why is Sycamore Suites Still Being Repaired?

Photo Courtesy / East Stroudsburg University Sycamore Suites houses 495 students as well as OASIS, CAPS, Student Conduct, and the Health & Wellness.

Adam Capotorto

Staff Writer

It’s been almost two months since the fire that happened in the Sycamore Suites and yet the building is still under repair.

When the sprinkler system went off, equipment in the computer lab was destroyed and the floor outside the lab was so saturated that it had to be cut out.

Two months later, and the Sycamore Suites still have a lack of carpeting and computer labs with no computers.

I understand that it takes time to replace equipment and carpeting, but it doesn’t even seem like they’re trying to fix the suites.

In the past two months, I’ve seen only two improvements in the last two months: the floor was dried and a temporary floor protectant was put down.

That’s it. There has been absolutely no sign of any carpentry business coming in to put in a new carpet or any mention of the computer lab being restocked with actual computers.

The absence of a carpet is excusable but the fact that the residents in Sycamore have to go without a computer lab is absurd.

Part of our tuition is a technology fee and yet the residents of Sycamore don’t even get to utilize it.

Sure, they could go to another building on campus but not all of them are open 24/7.

Plus, if the residents wanted to go to another residence hall to use their computer lab, they would have to hope someone they know is available to let them in.

And what about the students that are doing an assignment late at night?

Where are they going to go to complete and print their assignments?

They shouldn’t have to walk around campus late at night. It’s dangerous and unnecessary.

Yet, they’re forced to if they really need to print something out. They could wake up early in the morning and do it before class, but they shouldn’t have to do that either.

Not to mention that their grades would be affected by the fact they’d have to do the assignment right before class.

We all know ESU has more than enough money to afford a few computers and printers.

So why is it taking them so long to put new ones in for the residents of Sycamore?

It’s not fair to them that they’ve essentially been left without a resource that they pay for, and it’s even worse than they’ve been without it for almost the entirety of this semester.

If we pay for a technology fee, we should have as much access to technology as possible, and yet ESU has failed to effectively and efficiently replace the technology that the Sycamore Suites need.

The residents in that building are forced to print their papers all across campus while the residents of the other halls get to do the same in their own buildings.

Even if the process of ordering the computers for Sycamore really does take this long, which I don’t think it does, why hasn’t there been a temporary fix?

Why haven’t they taken a few computers from a few different areas around campus and moved a small office printer into Sycamore for the time being?

It really just seems like ESU doesn’t care.

There seems like there’s absolutely no urgency in making the students’ lives a little easier and each passing day just makes it seem a little more believable.

Email Adam at:

acaportorto@gmail.com