OPINION: Students as Whole Human Beings: Haverford’s Neglect of Our Wellbeing

Many of us can relate to the struggle of filling out maintenance requests only to not have them fulfilled for months, if at all. My RCA in Gummere last year shared with us that his closet door fell off its hinges before anyone from the maintenance crew came to repair it. The humid September weather made the old wooden doors warp, trapping my hallmate in the bathroom for multiple hours one night. This year, I moved into a Lunt double in the August heat, only to find that my AC was not working. My maintenance request has still not been fulfilled. My roommate and I opted to leave our windows open, a fine solution given that we live on the fourth floor, only to realize that our screens were not properly attached, letting bugs in. We then realized that the one window did not fully close, an unfortunate discovery during a hurricane. My friend, who lives in Barclay as an RCA, has had to help his residents deal with four bats, and has caught multiple mice in his room—only to be told to dispose of them himself when he called Res Life!

This is not an acceptable standard of living. But by far the worst dorm issue I have heard of was in Gummere. As a Gum resident last year, I was accustomed to the black mold in the showers (gross at a minimum, a health risk at its worst). One of the outside doors to the building also repeatedly malfunctioned throughout the year, constantly not locking properly so that one could open it without a OneCard. We put in many work orders, but the issue was never permanently resolved. I was incredibly dismayed to hear from one of this year’s Gum residents that not only were multiple doors still broken (they were finally fixed before Fall Break), but an unhoused man had entered the dorm and spent the night in one of the common rooms! I want to be very clear, homeless people should not be criminalized or generalized as a threat, but I believe that college students paying near $90,000 a year in tuition should have the right to sleep in a dorm they know is secure from non-campus residents. 

Along with the neglect of maintenance requests, many students have been frustrated with the Dining Center’s recent switch to limiting takeout containers only to lunch, forcing students to stay in the DC for breakfast and dinner even if they are too busy or sick. While the reasoning behind this decision is supposedly for financial and environmental sustainability reasons, in practice it means that students are being forced to sacrifice their and their peers’ wellbeing by not eating or going into a community space while ill. I think a much better sustainability decision would be for Haverford to weatherize the dorms, making them more energy efficient which would improve comfort, reduce our carbon footprint, and save energy costs. Fixing my window will probably reduce our carbon footprint more than reducing takeout containers.

And while the strategic plan—Haverford 2030—does include plans to renovate some of the older dorms, one would hope that we will not have to wait six years to gain safe living conditions. None of the current Haverford students will still be around in 2030, and does our well-being not matter too? Obviously large projects take time, but there are simple steps that the college could make in the meantime, such as responding promptly to maintenance requests, ensuring doors work properly, and restoring takeout at every meal. Instead, it feels like Haverford is moving in the wrong direction. 

With Haverford’s recent gifts of $25 million from Board of Managers Chair Michael B. Kim, and $7 million from Bill Harris ’49, Jim Kinsella ’82, and Bob McNeal, one might think Haverford would be well-equipped to take care of its students’ academic, housing, athletic, and extracurricular needs. But this is not the case. 

While donors often give money for specific purposes, with those funds not allowed to be allocated elsewhere, Haverford is not lacking in the academic arena. Chairman Michael Kim’s generous donation will be put towards a new Institute for Ethical Inquiry and Leadership, and the $7 million donation “will help create and support the new multidisciplinary initiative, endow tenure-track faculty, and bolster ongoing programs” according to President Wendy Raymond. These are wonderful endeavors, but as a current Haverford student, I feel like basic needs are being neglected while funding is going to bolster our already top-ranked academic program. 

From forcing sick students to skip meals, to allowing strangers to enter dorms, making students pay for SEPTA (while Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore provide free passes), it feels as though Haverford is more concerned about its external image as an elite school than the wellbeing of its current students. They have our money, now they do not care. 

I want to end by saying that I am a tour guide. I love Haverford, and the enthusiasm I share with prospective families on my tours is absolutely genuine. If doing the college application process over again, I would still choose Haverford. And there are many adults on this campus, from Dining Center staff to professors, who deeply care about us as whole people, not just students. The maintenance crew are hardworking, kind people; the issue is on a deeper systemic level. This issue of prioritizing students as only academic beings instead of full people who need to eat, rest, and flourish outside the classroom is not a unique Haverford issue. I would argue it is a broader cultural problem of America’s education system. But as a school that says it is deeply committed to “Trust, Concern, and Respect,” Haverford as an institution can do a lot more for its residents. We could be leaders in graduating well-rounded, healthy young adults. Instead, we are lagging.