Kelly McCoy
A single utility light casts a warm glow on a hallway hidden under carpet fragments and debris. The light stretches across the dusty floorboards and clings to the first few steps of the staircase leading up to the floor above. At midnight, the stairs stretch and retreat into the darkness. There’s a distinct quietness, a separation of space, and even time, from the rest of Warren Square A.
The ascent up the staircase is really a descent into the past; the remnants of a bathroom greet infrequent visitors at the top of the stairs. A glass cup caked in dirt sits perched atop the soap dish above a two-faucet sink. Up here, the separation of this twin house is evident. A cool peach paint covers the walls of the first side. An access opening cut into the dividing wall reveals a sister side, which still sports delicately printed floral wallpaper and a penchant for dark wood trim.
Yet in observing these stylistic differences, one must be careful to step only on the floorboards that are still intact. New planks of wood cover the most gaping holes, but not enough to cover all of them. Chunks of the fragile plaster walls and ceiling lie nestled into these gaps along with crumbling insulation. Near the entrance to this floor, time has rendered a large section of the ceiling convex, dipping down to greet the splintered floor below. Doorjambs sag at a defeated angle. A smattering of rolled, threadbare carpets, bathtubs, sinks and a potentially ersatz raccoon complete the third floor of Warren Square A.
I had heard fantastic tales about this third floor from previous housemates. Every once in a while, when maintenance work is underway, the small access door to this upper floor is opened, and the third floor becomes fairly receptive to visitors. However, as much as I love horror movies and exploring spaces that get my heart racing, I can’t help but think that this third floor is kept locked due to the safety hazard that it poses to the residents. If this is the reason for locking away the uppermost floor, I can’t help but wonder why this safety hazard has not yet been dealt with.
Debris liters Warren Square A’s third floor. Students do no occupy this floor of the house.
The remainder of the habitable floors of the house seem to be in decent condition, if not a little outdated. Although the advanced structural deterioration of the third floor is out of sight to its residents, this does not mean the effects of this deterioration will not affect the structure of the house as a whole. What will happen if that sagging ceiling finally collapses? How much more of the floor has to worsen before it starts to affect the ceiling of the second floor? Is there a danger to having a raccoon living above my head, scratching around for my attention? On a larger note, is it even a raccoon?
The decline and neglect of Warren Square A’s third floor is just a small part of the greater neglect of Warren Square as a whole. In talking to the residents of Warren Square D, their third floor seems to be in a similar state of disrepair. Warren Square A’s basement is a usable space, whereas the basement in D features a dirt floor and locked door, amounting to only 2 floors of usable space in this house of a potential 4 floors of usable space.
Plans are underway to renovate Chandler-Ullmann, which receives a high volume of student traffic. But what about the places where these students are living when they are not in class? I suppose that, just like the third floor of Warren Square A, Warren Square itself is out of sight, out of mind, to use a tired cliché. Last year, living in Dravo, I regularly encountered gardeners working early mornings on my way to class, planting and replanting as the seasons changed, and putting in great effort to the overall beautification of the main campus. Their hard work shows and is appreciated greatly.
After living in Warren Square for a semester-and-a-half, however, I began to miss these gardeners, as well as the men who regularly salted the sidewalks. While landscaping is purely superficial, it adds greatly to Lehigh’s image. It’s a good foot forward for visiting students and families, which doesn’t sound like a groundbreaking observation. I know for me, one of the main attractions of Lehigh was the incredible beauty of the campus, amongst other program-related aspects. I love walking through the wooded oasis of the main campus late at night, no sarcasm intended. But I didn’t even realize last year that university housing extended past the main campus, other than leased off-campus housing. I had heard very little about Warren Square and the Live Lehigh communities it houses until only about a week before I applied to live there.
The Live Lehigh communities that do live here are incredibly strong. I acknowledge bias on my part, because I live in one of these communities. But the idea of these communities as a whole is powerful. The work that a committed group of people can accomplish with the right resources could have the power to implement positive changes and additions to the university. Warren Square has such untapped potential.
The key to unlocking this potential lies in a single, small step – providing some tender love and care to the physical houses and providing greater support to the communities themselves. I respectfully challenge Lehigh to make efforts to integrate these communities more into the general vision of the university’s mission and to provide much-needed updates and repairs.
To quote the university’s mission statement itself, “Excellence is the hallmark of a university of distinction. Excellence requires a total quality commitment, which must characterize every activity of Lehigh University.” Currently, the quality of this commitment to Warren Square is falling short of “excellence.” There is a lack of commitment to these communities’ needs and, in some cases, to rectifying the safety hazards posed to their residents. Excellence should include supporting the residents of these communities who wish to use their education from this university to help it progress and improve. Excellence should include the knowledge that such improvements require ongoing effort. Excellence should not settle for a dangerous, dilapidated third floor. Excellence cannot and should not be spun any other way.
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