To live in an apartment, at home or in a dorm is a choice all college students face.

For students who choose to live in Brennan Hall, Wheatshocker Apartments or Fairmount Towers at Wichita State, the university strives to provide good maintenance service.

However, there are issues that come with change, the weather or even the matching up of suitemates.

Each floor in a residence hall is assigned a Resident Assistant (RA), except for Wheatshocker, which assigns two RAs for each floor. The assistant helps students acclimate into college life, become familiar with WSU and is there for moral support.

RAs perform room checks and are in charge of 20 to 70 students on each floor.

An RA receives free housing, and some residents think their RA is only there for that reason. Others do not feel they can talk to their RA about the noise level on their floor because nothing really changes when they do.

“Sometimes my floor gets so noisy that I cannot even study,” freshman Baylie Stous, an education major, said. She goes to another floor to study.

While some RAs may not give their job the attention it deserves, other RAs enjoy living in a residence hall and meeting new people but do not forget their responsibilities.

“Being an RA is awesome because I have the ability to positively influence students’ lives and meet people I would’ve never met had I not taken this job, along with great coworkers who enjoy this job,” Alexandrea Diaz said.

She is one of the RAs on the second floor of South Wheatshocker.

Residents also might have a problem with suitemates. The WSU Housing and Residence Life website suggests filling out their forms ahead of time so that students can be paired with someone who shares their interests.

A student who listed the names of preferred suitemates and made contact with them prior to moving in had a surprise waiting for her when she arrived at her dorm room.

“I had never met the person who I was rooming with, and it was kind of disappointing because I didn’t know who they were,” said the student, who preferred not to be named.

Katie Austin, associate director for Residence Life, said when the dorms begin filling up there are fewer opportunities to match someone up with a roommate with shared interests.

“Suitemates are handled in the same manner. That is why it is always best to get your housing contract submitted as early as possible, so you have the best chance of getting paired up with your ideal roommate,” Austin said.

Students also face building problems while living in the residence halls, which Austin explained are due to being short-staffed.

“We were and remain to be short-staffed in the maintenance department, which has led to a few delays in the completion of work orders in all three buildings,” Austin said. “The team is working very hard to simultaneously get caught up on the incoming work orders and handle big projects that pop up in the halls.”

Austin remains impressed by the residents’ understanding and flexibility about the situation, even with the low staff numbers and repair delays.

The physical plant makes repairs for the entire university. The physical plant no longer makes repairs for Housing and Resident Life.

“Maintenance issues in Housing [and] Housing and Residence Life has its own custodial and maintenance teams that handle any facilities-related issues in the residence halls,” Austin said. “They do a great job of making sure that the rooms and common areas are clean and that all aspects of the space are functioning properly. If students experience a non-emergency issue after-hours, they generally have to wait until the next morning for it to be resolved.”

Austin said the Residence Life Coordinators (RLC) help determine whether the maintenance issue is an emergency or not. RAs report to the RLC.

Many students like Stous who currently live in a residence hall say they are unlikely to live in one next year.

Senior Julie Scherer, who used to live at Fairmount North Tower, said the fire alarms went off all the time in the middle of the night and the elevators did not always work.