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Dorm life has pros and cons.

Living away from home for the first time has its ups and downs.

So the day has finally come when you get to move out your parents' house and live on your own! Well, sort of. From your parents' house, you move into dorms.  While you’re thinking you now have freedom, you realize there is res life -- life on campus. Living on campus could seem like freedom and fun but living on campus does have its pros and cons. The Resident life at Panola College definitely has its ups and downs.

If you are used to having your own room at home, living on campus can be a rude awakening, literally. You may have to live with a complete stranger if you don’t choose a roommate before you get to campus. People have to then adjust to living with someone, and be considerate and learn to compromise.  Your roommate and you could have two totally different personalities. You might be a night owl and she could be an early bird. Let’s not forget the rooms are not even that big for two people to have to live in.  If you are a person with a lot of things or clothes, there is hardly any room to hang everything. Sharp doesn’t even have closets it just has a rack to hang your clothes on. So now you share a room with a stranger but what about the bathroom? Well that you share with more strangers! Community showers! Shower shoes are a must. You just never know what germs and pathogens are lurking around in there. The noise levels can be very frustrating, too.  People are screaming and slamming doors all times of the day as if no one sleeps in the dorms, period. People run up and down the hall like they are outside playing.

There is a place to do laundry and that is convenient, but only when they the machines are all working and available.  You also have to worry about people taking your clothes out of the washer or dryer and just leaving them scattered all over.  Crazy enough as that is, you need to stay while your clothes are washing and drying to make sure they don't disappear.

Res Life also involves cafeteria food -- this can be a plus or minus.  You might not like what is being cooked but at least you don’t have to go out and buy anything if you are budgeting.

I asked students what they thought about the activities that were provided on campus and the feedback I got was that there should be more campus activities to keep the students entertained and from being bored constantly.  Students suggested the fitness center stay open every day and a volleyball net put up to play volleyball in the fitness center.  One activity that would be fun to do here is intramural sports. Students can have their own teams and play against each other. A game room was also suggested to be added to the activities that we could have around here.

You think you’ve gotten away from your parent’s rules but there are rules on campus, too.  Rules can be a good thing because as we all know without rules there is chaos, but can the rules be too strict on campus?  Everyone’s favorite rule to hate is curfew.  Here the person of the opposite sex has to be out of the room by 11 p.m. during the week and midnight on the weekends, which many feel is too early.  I feel like we should be treated as adults and given a little more time to mingle in our friends' rooms.  An even stricter rule is people can’t spend the night in other’s rooms even if they are the same sex.  If any of these rules are broken, the fine is $100. To make sure the students abide by these rules, there are random room checks done by the RAs.  These rooms check are a bit of a privacy violation because there aren’t any nice knocks on the door with someone saying “res life” and then them waiting for you to let them in. It’s a knock, followed by the announcement saying “res life” then someone just walking into your room whether you’re ready or not.  I can understand them using their key to come in so that you don’t have time to hide anything or anyone but they should give you a little more time in case you’re asleep or not dressed.

Not everything about staying on campus is bad though. The resident life has some good things about it.  It is a lot more convenient to just wake up and walk to class then to it is to have to commute every morning you have class.  With the rising gas prices, who wouldn’t want to just have to walk to class instead of drive?  You can go to the library anytime to study or rent a movie to watch.  Also with campus life you get to meet more people and make friends.  Some people complain about the price of the dorms but these prices are a lot cheaper than having to pay for dorms at a bigger school with prices over $3,000. 

Campus life is just what you make of it. You can either follow the rules and have a good time or just mope around in your room and do nothing at all.