"We Would Appreciate Your Feedback": A Short, Uncalled-For Rant on Residence Life
Posted by: Matt O'Connell
I'm not sure if this is as big a problem to other people living on campus as it is to me, but I really, really hate the Quality of Life survey. Here's what happens: you get an ominous-looking letter saying that you've been selected to fill out a survey and providing the date and time you will be expected to participate. Then the lure: free pizza.
Last year, living in Bowditch Hall, I was selected and forgot about it until an hour or so before the time came. I took another look at the letter, having a horrible day in the first place and unwilling to leave the room, and discovered that the word "mandatory" did not appear anywhere within. So I didn't go. Later, during the block I was scheduled to arrive, there was a knock on my door and a couple of RA's basically threatened me in various ways until I left with them and filled out the form, refusing the offer of free pizza as I left. I didn't feel like fighting even though I knew their threats were baseless.
This year, I was determined not to participate even though I had again been selected. The night came and they came by my room again, except this time a roommate answered the door before me (I would have freaked out, I was uncharacteristically quick to anger that day) and said we'd all be down shortly. None of us went-- a victory.
But it wasn't that simple. This very evening, almost a week later, another knock came. You guessed it! Quality of Life surveys! A roommate and I were the only ones around so an innocent-looking young woman handed us each a form and said she had to wait in the hallway until we had filled them out. I wasn't going to do it, but I knew that would only be making her life difficult, so I checked "no opinion" on every query and left a bitter message in the blank space at the end of the form. You'd be amazed at how much "quality of life" suffers when Residence Life is so insistent about something so vacuous. I feel the methods currently in use should be re-evaluated if the powers that be expect honest answers, because they aren't going to get them with this sort of coercion going on.
Last year, living in Bowditch Hall, I was selected and forgot about it until an hour or so before the time came. I took another look at the letter, having a horrible day in the first place and unwilling to leave the room, and discovered that the word "mandatory" did not appear anywhere within. So I didn't go. Later, during the block I was scheduled to arrive, there was a knock on my door and a couple of RA's basically threatened me in various ways until I left with them and filled out the form, refusing the offer of free pizza as I left. I didn't feel like fighting even though I knew their threats were baseless.
This year, I was determined not to participate even though I had again been selected. The night came and they came by my room again, except this time a roommate answered the door before me (I would have freaked out, I was uncharacteristically quick to anger that day) and said we'd all be down shortly. None of us went-- a victory.
But it wasn't that simple. This very evening, almost a week later, another knock came. You guessed it! Quality of Life surveys! A roommate and I were the only ones around so an innocent-looking young woman handed us each a form and said she had to wait in the hallway until we had filled them out. I wasn't going to do it, but I knew that would only be making her life difficult, so I checked "no opinion" on every query and left a bitter message in the blank space at the end of the form. You'd be amazed at how much "quality of life" suffers when Residence Life is so insistent about something so vacuous. I feel the methods currently in use should be re-evaluated if the powers that be expect honest answers, because they aren't going to get them with this sort of coercion going on.
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