The key selling point for a place to live is to make it look as wonderful as possible from the outside looking in. Calhoun Lofts, with it’s chic, contemporary architecture lures students hoping to live on campus and live a little luxuriously. The prospective student is shown a small but attractive, modernly decorated apartment and is given a pamphlet on how wonderful the complex is for the “mature student.” There are plenty of amenities: a small gym room, a luxurious Sky Lounge overlooking the city, a computer lab and a small movie theater on the ninth floor.
The Sky Lounge is one of the amenities students come to expect when moving in to the Calhoun Lofts. Recently, students have become frustrated with alleged curfews imposed by residential assistants and oft-broken or closed amenities. / Shaimaa Eissa / The Daily Cougar
When you speak with the Lofts’ residents, like UH Law Center graduate student Alex Nelson, they tell a slightly different story.
“The Lofts are priced and marketed to look like graduate housing with the assumption the price entails more autonomy than we are getting and nicer amenities,” he said, “but residential assistants can still enter your room without your consent or presence, and the amenities are rarely accessible and aren’t kept in good condition.”
Several residents have similar issues. The beautiful Sky Lounge is either inaccessible or off limits at certain times. The doors are either locked or the residential assistants will kick you out at a certain time, much to Nelson’s chagrin.
“We call it Curfew Lofts because you never know when an RA will kick you out of the Sky Lounge,” Nelson said.
Curfews may discourage a professional student to take residence there, but there are other issues.
“There are double doors that don’t work near the elevator,” said environmental science senior Joey Rodriguez. “They haven’t worked since I’ve been here, and nobody has fixed them.”
That seems trivial, though. Every building has its issues. But when the issues spill over to the advertised amenities for long periods of time, people get frustrated.
“The main machine in the weight room was broken for a lot of last year,” Nelson said.
The movie room was unavailable during most of 2012, and many students noticed, including broadcast graduate Adam Pruitt.
“A lot of people pay for amenities that they don’t get,” he said. “People pay close to a thousand dollars. They could at least (keep the amenities working).”
The Lofts is said to be the luxury apartment complex for more mature students, but if students aren’t able to use the amenities and access is limited to certain times of day for premium amenities, the mature student may as well look elsewhere.
Despite these popular complaints, students had good things to say about the Lofts.
“Despite (what I had said earlier), there isn’t too much wrong with the Lofts,” Pruitt said.
Through some of the windows, you can see a wonderful overlay of the city.
“I like the higher ceilings, concrete floors and the ability to control the temperature. The views are also great,” Nelson said.
If the Lofts wants to thrive and keep its residents happy, students must be treated like the maturely and it should make sure all of the great the amenities are readily accessible. After all, some of the best advertising comes from happy residents who feel they are getting their money’s worth.
Jacob Patterson is a management information systems senior and may be reached at [email protected].
Daily cougar never suprises me with opinons that border line on yellow journalism. I find it a little odd that there is no response from someone who works at the lofts to give more than one sided. This is just anecdotal trash.
From a resident who has lived at the Lofts from the past two years there are valid reasons why there are curfews. There have been countless holes in walls, tiles brocken, and TVs stolen.