It has been over five months since the new residence hall, North Campus Communities, was added to the University of Idaho’s list of available student housing.
It was leased in the summer of 2023 from the FairBridge Inn for the overflow of students who are not freshman, great for students who want to walk 20 minutes to class every day, share a desk with their roommate and, as the UI website would put it, “retain a level of independence.”
Nathan Lee is a sophomore and a resident of the NCC hall and has some things in mind for improvements after living there for over a semester. While Lee loves staying at NCC and doesn’t mind the distance from campus, he has noticed a few technical problems with assistance, the route to campus and complications with the dorm.
One of the problems Lee encountered was the radiator. At one point, the chiller for the radiator had turned off and the temperature was stuck at 75 degrees for a month. Lee explained how he tried to deal with the situation.
“I had poor sleep in such conditions. I tried having a window open but kept being woken up due to noise from the highway, people talking, tractor-trailers unloading at McDonald’s, back-up-beepers, etc… I just dealt with the warm air instead,” Lee said.
It was not just in Lee’s room. He asked around and found out the radiators in the building were inefficient and broken down. Lee also mentioned boilers stopped multiple times, leaving the building with no hot water for days until fixed.
It seemed the temperature wasn’t the only problem though, as Lee found the layout of the dorm to be a little unfitting for two people to live in.
“There was only one desk. Two people. One desk. Not going to work. We emailed housing asking for another desk, and they ultimately wouldn’t do anything about it,” Lee said.
Lee ended up buying his own foldable desk since no desk would be provided for him.
The most concerning problem Lee witnessed was the lack of safety precautions. One is the fire alarms.
“In the first month or two the fire alarms went off 3 separate times. The only thing I could hear from my room was a buzzer. I looked outside looking for a possible source of the noise and didn’t see any flashers either. So, for a good few minutes, I didn’t even think it was a fire alarm,” Lee said.
With the NCC dorms residing next to the highway, students must cross it to attend on-campus classes. The 5-lane highway is classified as a stroad, a phrase coined for roads that are dangerous and inefficient. Stroads combine the idea of having highway roads in urban areas for continuous traffic. While very common, they aren’t beneficial and cost a lot for how inefficient they are. Lee experiences this every day as he is continuously cut off by right-turning traffic when crossing.
“I’ve seen many close encounters at conflict points on this road. The University of Idaho should work with the city council to make this road safer for literally anyone not in a car,” he explains.
To avoid walking, students also have the option of SMART transit. It takes the same time as it would to walk, and it is free. However, transit schedules can conflict with students’ class or work schedules, making many students’ only option to walk.
NCC is the cheapest hall to live in. There is also free parking for students with cars, and it is only a short walk away from McDonald’s and WinCo. Lee’s favorite part about living there is the free continental breakfast in the mornings, something no other hall offers without a meal plan.
While the new dorm was an easy fix for the overflow of students, it is a little problematic for the 200 full-time residents having to live in what used to be a two-star, pet friendly motel, according to Lee. While liveable, some technical problems should be figured out so students can consistently have warm water, proper insulation and safe travel to classes.
Sophia Newell can be reached at [email protected]