As a freshwoman last year, I lived in Rhoads North, the most recently renovated dorm on campus. Because of this, my views on the status of certain aspects of other dorms might be a little skewed. Not that Rhoads was fabulous either. But I’ll get to that in a later article.
For those who don’t know, the Haffner dorm is divided into three towers, French, Spanish, and German. These towers host cultural activities for the college in their lounges and offer support for people taking language courses. What is surprising, however, is that the residents speak very little of the language in their day-to-day lives. Though I came in with the notion that everyone was there to speak another language, most are here for the singles with enormous closets. But there are activities to participate in, if you so choose.
One of the most deceiving aspects about Haffner is the application before room draw. As a freshwoman, I was under the impression that one must apply in order to live in Haffner, thereby cutting off all other alternatives for Room Draw in the spring. Little did I know, but Haffner is also included in the Room Draw, since applicants rarely fill the towers. So the best way to hedge your bets regarding Room Draw is to not apply to Haffner, so if you get a good number (like I did, arg!), you will be able to better exercise your options if Haffner would not be your first choice.
Now we’ll get into the nitty-gritty about the living conditions. First, the walls are simply awful. What is Facilities doing with the money they collect for damages at the end of the year? Well they’re definitely not repairing the rooms. These walls have giant scrapes, gouges, discoloration, punctures, and in some cases, drawing. Now I didn’t expect this type of damage done to a room only occupied by females. I understand that the residents are pushing for Haffner to be remodeled sometime in the future, so at some point this will change.
The bathrooms are in tolerable condition. A bathtub! I’m amazed, since those are so rare in a college dorm. Well Haffner has them, along with two shower stalls with locking doors, so no peeking under or walking in (for those worried). The stalls for the showers and the toilets are a little small, but I guess that takes some getting used to. What is unacceptable though, is the falling framework of one bathroom stall, which could injure someone who isn’t careful. Otherwise, they are just normal bathrooms.
The laundry rooms. The person who came up with this idea was a moron. Who wants to walk through the courtyard to get to the laundry room? Well all the Haffner dwellers have to, so if you come here, get used to it. But once you get there, there are only 2 washers and 2 dryers. And that’s for 80 people. They have specific days assigned when each tower can do laundry, which can be a real inconvenience for those with packed schedules and a bad laundry day. The laundry room is also at the bottom of a long flight of stairs, not for those who have disabilities or extremely heavy laundry baskets.
If you can’t tell from the shape of the tower, the halls are squares, rather than straight. Each corner has 3 rooms, called alcoves, that all have the same entranceway. The shape interrupts the social activity a bit, since you can’t just see down a hall to meet new people. There aren’t any windows that look onto the hall either, which can make it seem very dark. They claim to have fixed the stairwells over the summer, installing lights to increase light inside. They claim that they’re a bit brighter, which they are, but they just look incredibly dirty and dingy. Now you can see the old gum on the stairs, isn’t that wonderful? But they serve their purpose, so I guess you can’t complain too much.
Overall, Haffner appears to be a good choice for those who desperately want a single, and hate Erdman. The easy access to a dining hall seven days a week helps tip the scale slightly in Haffner’s favor. But more reviews of dorms around Bryn Mawr’s campus are coming soon, so don’t decide yet!
