UH’s infrastructure isn’t an inconvenience, it’s dangerous

Nearly every student at the University has something to say about its infrastructure. Whether it’s issues with endless construction or buildings falling apart, it’s almost a running joke at this point. But if UH administration’s consistent neglect isn’t taken seriously, the consequences for the student body range from inconvenient to life-threatening.

You don’t have to look far to find students complaining about infrastructure issues. In the past few weeks alone, the UH subreddit has been full of posts complaining about the on-campus dorms in Moody Towers.

“Wanna fill up your water bottle? Water fountain is broken. Wanna wash clothes? Machines are broken. Wanna go to another floor? Take the stairs or get ready to wait 10 minutes for the elevator to mosey its way up and down 17 floors, taking 10 seconds to open and close the door each floor,” said one user.

For some students, having to slightly change your routine due to maintenance issues is nothing more than a mild inconvenience. But for students with a disability, these issues run the risk of ruining their entire day.

Moody Towers only has two elevators that are meant to access over a dozen floors. If one elevator goes down, this forces every student to use the same one, causing space issues for wheelchair-bound students. If both elevators go down, disabled students are at risk of being stranded, especially in potential emergencies.

The issues with Moody Towers in particular have been pointed out numerous times. Articles in The Cougar from 2019 and even further back noted nearly the exact same issues while also addressing how inaccessible the communal showers are.

While the University promised to take action on the towers “within three to five years” much of their focus at the time was on fancy new projects, such as introducing the now-commonplace Starship food delivery robots.

Ironically, these same delivery robots ended up causing further problems for disabled students by taking up space on sidewalks that are already uneven and hard to traverse in a wheelchair. Some students even reported that the robots would stop in front of wheelchair ramps at the end of crosswalks sometimes, potentially trapping wheelchair-bound students in the street.

If you’re not disabled, it can be easy to dismiss these critiques as overly harsh. After all, the Starship program doesn’t cost nearly as much as renovating Moody Towers would, and the University did eventually approve plans to replace the building with a new dining facility.

But even if the necessary changes eventually get made, UH administration has a bad habit of dragging its feet or avoiding problems until they become too big to ignore. For example, Agnes Arnold Hall has also had its fair share of infrastructure issues, including flooding, fires and malfunctioning elevators.

 

With enough neglect, these infrastructure problems quickly go from inconvenient to dangerous. Middle Eastern Studies Program Director Dr. Emran El-Badawi has spent over a decade trying to bring attention to these concerns, repeatedly recounting stories of being trapped in elevators or watching them fall without warning.

“Agnes Arnold Hall was one of six buildings slated for renovations,” said El-Badawi. “However, renovations have been delayed for year after year for almost a decade. In the meantime countless crises, including multiple suicides, have occurred.”

Like El-Badawi observed, it took multiple tragedies to finally push the University to take action despite imminent risk to students and faculty. Even in highly dangerous flood conditions, the administration has played fast and loose with student safety.

During Hurricane Imelda in 2019, the University announced that operations would continue as normal, only retracting that statement hours later. But by that point, thousands of students had been stranded on campus.

Under the University’s emergency plan, Chancellor Renu Khator makes the final decision when it comes to whether or not campus closes during inclement weather scenarios. In 2008, Khator had to publicly apologize after choosing to keep campus open even Hurricane Ike made landfall.

These choices were made with the full knowledge that Houston is both extremely vulnerable to flooding and that multiple campus buildings still needed upgrades to avoid being devastated by floodwaters.

So what does all this mean, and what can the average student do about it? Well, for one, it means that University administration has persistently ignored issues over multiple decades that could have put students’ wellbeing in jeopardy. It’s hard to say whether these decisions are due to greed or negligence, but the pattern is clear.

The good news is that there is something the average student can do about these issues: Don’t shut up about them. The only reason change came about from any of these scenarios was because students refused to let the issue fade away. Even in the smallest of scenarios, speaking out can make a massive difference.

For example, when one disabled student broke her arm in 2019 due to UH repeatedly refusing to install a door that was accessible to her, she refused to give up. Her social media campaign calling the University out on their negligence eventually led to more disability-friendly doors being installed in several buildings.

So be loud and be petty if you have to. No issue is too small to complain about; you’re paying to be here after all. UH promised you a safe, hygienic and accessible college experience when you first arrived here. So stop accepting their half measures and demand what you’re owed.

Malachi Key is a Journalism senior who can be reached at [email protected].