Letter from Jorge Vega Diaz: 

In the last three years, I’ve been at Murray State either as a student or as part of its staff. I have seen the school acting as a unit to protest the funding cuts made by the government, to defend our freedom of speech even when it is not the most agreeable or even to express that Racer passion through supporting Homecoming or any sport events.

However, that unity seems not to work when it comes to solving housing issues for the residents in College Courts. Then, it is all about passing responsibilities from one person or department to another or pointing to someone else to get something fixed. I am paying the university for a place to live and I expect to get back the same kind of commitment and responsibility I have when I pay my bills on time to avoid suffering the consequences of not doing it. However, what I have seen is a “funnel strategy” put in place in which the students are put through the narrow section of the funnel if they do not comply with their duties and can actually face legal actions if they fail to follow the requirements, while the school freely rests in the wide section of it without fulfilling its responsibilities to provide a decent place to live. Just to give you a couple of examples of that disconnection that seems to be within certain departments in school, I can tell you that during two and half years living at College Courts, my toilet never had a toilet seat because the work order was apparently misplaced, not taken correctly or lost. The excuse at the Housing Office was always the same: the maintenance department has so much to do. (Really? Even during the summertime?). Last weekend, we had the worst internet crash in College Courts and all the Housing Office did was point out somebody else (IT department) to fix it, but that never happened. Not just me, but residents from other buildings had to leave their places to do homework. So I guess it is just about time the school get its sense of unity together and start acting more responsibly in regard to providing a more livable environment because we are paying for it, after all. As I see it, Murray State providing housing services is not different from any non-campus contractual agreement between a tenant and a landlord.