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Following recent heavy rains and flooding, some University of Louisville residence halls have experienced leaking through the ceilings, while Unitas Tower and Threlkeld Hall specifically, have leaking through their first floor lobbies.

As the university strives for an increase in residential life, expanding to include private developers who are not necessarily bogged down with pending legislation, one must question the validity of those efforts. Campus residents have significantly increased to nearly 3,500 beds and university administrators are hoping to expand on those numbers.

But, according to Shannon Staten, director of housing, the residence halls haven’t received significant improvements due to limited funding.

“We are currently working on another plan to secure funding for renovations,” said Staten.

Miller Hall, for example, currently holds 200 students. Yet the residence hall was supposed to be closed to undergo several maintenance upgrades, including the construction of elevators within the facility. None of those upgrades have occurred and although U of L can point blame to ineffective legislators (and rightfully so), they must also recognize that excuses produce nothing but inefficiency among those in power.

Improvements in the lobby at Unitas and their elevators highlight the university’s awareness of improving living conditions, but these improvements simply don’t suffice in order to adequately combat the problems facing U of L’s residence halls.

Staten and Larry Detherage, associate vice president for facilities, said they just fixed tornado damages from earlier in the semester at Louisville Hall.

The residence halls are deteriorating and the leaky ceilings are minor points in a puzzle of escalating problems which have continued to cause concern.

Few, if any, cameras, outdated or non-existent elevators, dilapidated room and bathroom facilities, plus a myriad of other issues have hindered campus life and morale from flourishing.

A leaky ceiling, especially one requiring a bucket in the middle of the lobby, is simply unacceptable to ensuring the productivity of campus life and its students.

So as rainwater drips and drops into buckets, try and pardon the mess.