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Haffner
The Haffner ExperienceBy Ashley Seitz '05 Sage Staff Writer
This article is mainly to shed some light on the particulars of Haffner for students who may not have seen the interior living quarters. I intend to make this a series of articles, eventually covering each dorm on campus, so people can make educated decisions when deciding where to live next year.
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 have been a little skewed. Not that Rhoads was fabulous either, but I will get to that in a later article.
For those who do not know, Haffner 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 these languages in their day-to-day lives. I applied with the notion that everyone was here to speak another language, but most desire the singles with enormous closets. But there are activities to participate in and people to converse with, 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 advance in order to live in Haffner, thereby cutting off all other alternatives for Room Draw in the spring. Little did I know that Haffner is also included in Room Draw, since applicants rarely fill the towers. 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 is not your first choice.
Now we will 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, discolorations, punctures, and in some cases, drawings. Now I did not expect this type of damage to be done to a room that has only been occupied by females. I understand that the residents are pushing for Haffner to be remodeled in the future, so at some point, this will change.
The bathrooms are in tolerable condition. A bathtub, I am 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 dorm bathrooms.
The laundry room is even worse than the bathrooms. Who wants to walk outside 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. Once you get to the laundry room, there are only two washers and two dryers 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 accomodating for those with disabilities or extremely heavy laundry baskets.
If you cannot tell from the shape of the tower, the halls are squares, rather than straight. Each corner has three rooms, called alcoves, that all have the same entranceway. The shape of the halls 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. Facilities claims to have fixed the stairwells over the summer, installing lights to increase visibility inside. They claim that they're a bit brighter, which is true, 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 have already ruled out 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!
(Think you should focus on some positive aspects. We don't want to rip every dorm on campus to shreads. Remember we do have some of the best college dorms in the country. I think you could focus on that aspect a little more. I'm sure some people love Haffner. Maybe you should interview them, or other residents too)
