Western Kentucky University - Talisman Yearbook (Bowling Green, KY)

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20 Dorms vs. apartments cont. several years is Marie Bunce, a Louisville senior. Bunce moved into South Hall when she transferred from Jefferson Community College in the fall of 1979, and moved back out again “as soon as possible,”’ she said. After spending a month in the dorm, Bunce sai d, “‘l was really going crazy; trying to study for tests when your roommate wants to party defeats the purpose of being here. And | could have gone to a lot better parties if I’d stayed in Louisville.”’ But getting out of the dorm wasn’t the end of Bunce’s housing problems. ‘‘Finding a place that was inhabitable was awfully hard — harder than it seemed like it should be,”’ she said. The apartment on 13th Street that Bunce first occupied after leaving campus included a lot of freeloading roommates. “‘There were roaches in that place as big as my thumb,” she said. ‘‘Everything in the cupboards | had to keep tied up in plastic bags. “The landlord kept insisting that he'd sprayed,’ Bunce said, ‘‘but he must have used something that roaches like to eat.” WHILE HIS ROOMMATE Curtis Richie, a Louisville sophomore, sleeps, Turner Cloar, a Munfordville junior, studies his accounting. In a dorm, trying to sleep while a roommate studies has always been a problem. — Steve Lowry And, according to Bunce, not all apartments are noise-free. ‘‘The walls were so thin, | could hear the guy next door roll over in bed at night. Anything louder sounded like it was going on in my apartment,” she said. After months of searching, Bunce found a clean, quiet apartment on Center Street. Relatively quiet, that is. “The only noise | get here is the people walk- ing around upstairs. Compared to the other places I've lived in Bowling Green, it’s like heaven,” she said. Bunce said apartments close to campus are more expensive for obvious’ reasons. “Landlords in a town this size know that they've got students right where they want them, but being close enough to walk to class is worth it,’ she said. “Trying to find a parking space in the morning if you're driving from off campus is harder than finding a good apart- ment in the middle of the semester.” Finding a comfortable place off campus helped Bunce’s grades, she said. ‘‘It took so much pressure off, it was like dropping two classes.” “Not everybody looks at it that way, but finding a decent place to live really helped me make it through. | don’t know if | would have, otherwise,’’ Bunce said. At Barbara Barry’s Parkside Court duplex apartments, a line of cars overflowing the driveway meant everybody was home. A Louisville senior, Barry shared the two- bedroom duplex with three other women. ‘'It gets a little hectic at times,’’ she said. ‘But we're all friends, so we get along pretty well.” Two bedrooms between four women was no problem, Barry said, but the apartment’s one bathroom presented some interesting schedul- ing conflicts. “We try to talk each other into taking showers at night so there isn’t a traffic jam in the morning,’ Cathy Francis, one of Barry’s roommates, said. “Usually it doesn’t work,” junior said. “But some of us are night people and some of us are morning people,” Barry said. ‘‘So we can work around each other without too much trouble.” “I’m a night person,’’ said Pam Shelton, a Russellville graduate student who was moving in to replace one of Barry’s other roommates. “During the day, I’m so busy that I have to do those things whenever | can.” But in spite of the crowded conditions, Barry's other roommate, Louisville junior Annie Boone, said apartment living was more comfor- table than living in a dorm. “‘You don’t feel like someone’s looking over your shoulder all the time,’’ she said. ‘We all compromise, so most of the time it’s pretty much fun,” Boone said. Fred Wheeler the Louisville er gitlilas oe CEECEEEEL

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— Steve Lowry 19 Dorms vs apartments

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‘ Sse . — Chris Clark CROWDED GARBAGE CANS stand in front of an unrented apartment on Kentucky Street. Sights such as this have kept many students from moving off campus. However, nearly 64 percent of Western's enrollment chose to live off campus during the fall semester. Rats Campus life attracts some new campus life ats — outside windows, in the trash R rooms, on the stairways — apartment dwellers had to deal with it, and dorm liv- ing wasn’t always an escape. “Yes we do have a rat problem on campus,” housing director Horace Shrader said. ‘It’s a problem all over campus and we deal with it continuously to control it.”’ he said. Rats live on scraps thrown from dorm win- ‘| hope something can be done about it. It’s getting bad, and someone else will get bitten if they aren’t controlled.’ — Fred Dent dows, Shrader said. They've been reported at every residence hall, but the problem was worst around Keen and Poland halls, he said. At about Thanksgiving, one Pearce-Ford resi- dent was bitten by a rat and had to get medical treatment. “Il was reaching into the bushes outside Pearce-Ford because | had dropped my keys, and a rat bit me on the finger. | felt dizzy and nauseous the next day and had to go to the hospital,’’ Fred Dent, a freshman from Chicago, Ill., said. “I was in the hospital five days before they finally called in a specialist from Atlanta. It was determined | had some disease rats transmit.” he said. ‘I was really sick.” Maintenance director Kemble Johnson was in charge of coordinating physical plant efforts to control the rats. ‘“‘We have an ongoing con- tract with a local pest control company that handles all our pest problems — rats, mice, roaches, ’ he said. “We have a few complaints a week about rats,’’ Johnson said. ‘‘Most come from the Keen or Poland halls. We had a report of rats in the ceiling at Keen Hall last week,’ Johnson said. “The dorms all have kitchens now, and the pro- blem has gotten worse over the last few years since the kitchens have been installed.” One Keen Hall resident has been trapping rats outside his dorm window, and Barnes- Campbell director Bill Burns said he put out rat traps in addition to ones supplied by the university. “It’s a problem, but | wouldn't call it severe,’ Burns said. ‘‘At least it’s not severe at Barnes- Campbell.’ Rats had apparently climbed up a heating vent into the dorm and could not get out. Food services director Lon Slaughter said he had seen rats only once or twice the past year. “They get underneath the building and in crevices underground,” he said. “But | have never seen one inside the Downing Center. | have seen them a time or two outside around the dumpster, though.”’ One rat control problem was the En- vironmental Protection Agency regulations that limited the strength and type of poison to give the rats, Johnson said. The poison in use killed slowly, taking up to 10 days of regular feeding. ‘| sure hope something can be done about it. It’s getting bad, and someone else will get bitten if they aren’t controlled,” Dent said. Rat control is difficult and total elimination would be impossible, according to Shrader. He said the answer appeared to lie in the poison control and the elimination of food scraps thrown from windows. Tim Farmer — Gary Hairlson IN FRONT OF Keen Hall, Steve Tong displays one of his catches. The Owensboro freshman caught 11 rats near the dorm during the year. : 21 Dorms vs apartments Rats