Tower Village living: pros and cons

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Last week’s news article by Abby Thorpe covered student’s negative experiences with Tower Village. The article encouraged my own reflection about moving there this coming December.

At the end of this semester, I will have senior standing in credit hours and can move in with my best friend in Tower Village. Although I mentally made the decision to move, I am now reconsidering the pros and cons of moving off campus.

Thorpe reported students’ negative experiences with Tower Village. For example, one student struggled with a defective dishwasher; it’s hard for me to imagine not being able to do dishes for eight months. I have also heard from friends that some apartments in Tower Village have cockroach problems; there have been times when I was hanging out with friends in their clean apartment and roaches appeared on the wall out of nowhere.

Although no apartment complex is perfect, each individual must prioritize their wants and needs when selecting a place to live.

I currently live on campus in the student apartments, which are spacious, well kept and a comfortable walking distance from my classes. I also have a meal plan for weekdays. For me, living on campus is low-maintenance and convenient.

While the student apartments are nice, it would be less expensive to live in Tower Village without the requirement of a meal plan. Additionally, moving would be fairly easy since the girls I intend to live with have lived there for the last month and have organized their finances and considered how it would change once I move in.

The only problem my future roommates have encountered  with their apartment is with the stove. However, Tower Village responded promptly to the issue. The ceiling in one of the bathrooms leaks a little when it rains heavily, something that is currently being checked out. In their experience, Tower Village has been a comfortable place to live with minimal difficulty.  

If I did not have immediate access to a particular apartment that I know to be roach free, has working appliances, and is already organized, I would be more hesitant to make the move. I have heard many horror stories ranging from killer cockroaches to leaking pipes and now to broken dishwashers. While some of these experiences are factual and others might be exaggerated, I intend to find out for myself and experience whatever situations I encounter in my first off-campus apartment.

The main reasons I want to move to Tower Village are to live with my best friend and her cats; to decrease my housing costs; to have my own space off campus for friendly gatherings; and lastly, I would like to distance myself from the notion that my identity is solely as a student rather than an adult.

As a junior, I am beginning to look at life beyond college; it is important to me to have a space away from campus and learn how to live more independently. Living on campus means that my living space is central to the community, and I am finding that I want more freedom to be my own person and prepare for adulthood. I need to learn how to budget my income in terms of rent, groceries, utilities, and social outings. Everyone discovers adulthood in their own way, and I am currently in the process of deciding what is best for me.

Many of my friends who live in the student apartments and could move to Tower Village or elsewhere off campus choose to remain on campus for convenience of its location, to avoid the noise from weekend social gatherings, and because they enjoy the shared community. Arguably, part of the reason students stay on campus until senior year is because of the close-knit community it creates and the idea that those who live together grow together.  

While UD housing has helped me live and grow, I am looking forward to doing so on my own.

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