Housing Hypocrisy

What has glowing lights, reaches about ten feet high, is rumored to cost 30,000 dollars and has absolutely no purpose on this planet? That’s right, you guessed it! The Rainbow Wall in the basement of Couzens Hall. Fortunate enough to be placed in the brand new, hotel-style dormitory on the Hill for my freshman year of college, I was ecstatic to see how beautiful and high-tech all of the facilities were in my dorm, but I was also puzzled when I first walked into what now is referred to as “The Rainbow Room.” Like most of the convenient and fully equipped study rooms in the basement, the Rainbow Room has an assortment of tables and chairs conducive to working and socializing. This room is unique, however, because it is also home to a monstrous wall with a giant screen on the front that does nothing but display a lazy combination of swirls of colors in every shade of the rainbow. It has three or four set patterns of movement, and shuffles through these every hour of every day. It actually does nothing else.

Supposedly, its function is to serve as a giant speaker, and the light displays are supposed to align and match the beats of the music. Have you ever used the iTunes visualizer? Or maybe you remember those old mac screensavers that bounced light around in different designs? Essentially, this wall is a huge screensaver that bobs to music. We are more than halfway through the school year, and I have only seen someone use the rainbow wall’s speaker system once. The lights didn’t look any different with music. The University spent 30K on a two-hour dance party for seven people. That’s probably worth it.

Of my many reasons to be outraged by this installment to our dorm, the first is its cost. While I have not confirmed the price, the general rumor admits that it cost around 30,000 dollars to install. Here’s a list of things we could have used 30,000 dollars for, instead of an oversized light-brite: two semesters of in-state tuition at the University of Michigan, practically one semester of out-of-state tuition at that same University, a non-profit striving for any sort of positive change (of which there are literally thousands in this country), researching cures for terminal illnesses, the construction of another homeless shelter in Ann Arbor (as of November, 2011 there was only one in operation), fixing the appalling recycling system in the dorms, turning more of the Michigan busses into the new hybrid, clean-energy busses and countless other altruistic causes. Instead, the Housing department decided to spend its additional cash (which more likely that not came in part from students’ tuition) on the Rainbow Wall.

Once we look past the atrocious amount of money we spent to get the wall inside the building, we now can focus on how much money and electricity we are wasting to keep it running at all times of the day. I’m not sure if people still think we have an infinite, unlimited amount of electricity on our planet, but I regretfully inform them that this is, in fact, a myth. We are rapidly using up our sources of energy, and should not be using what limited resources we have on colored lights. Want to look at a rainbow? Walk outside after it rains or turn on PBS.

My third and final complaint is of the Housing department in general. They constructed the wall in the first place because they place an enormous emphasis on presenting an affluent, technologically advanced décor, but also claim to of consider practical, environmentally friendly alternatives. My entire dorm is decorated in this plush, pseudo-wealthy fashion that tries so hard to exude affluence, when it is actually made from recycled materials. Which is great, but then there are also between seven and ten flat screen TV’s that rarely get used. Meanwhile, students are struggling to pay back loans and debts and unemployment levels are still high. In the grand scheme of the school’s massive budget the Rainbow Wall is probably insignificant, but it still represents Michigan’s ambition to flaunt an elite, technologically advanced pretense that is completely unnecessary and undeniably wasteful. The Rainbow Wall is a heinous, ugly, unconscionable use of money, and I sincerely hope that there are not plans for similar atrocities in the upcoming renovations to East Quad, Alice Lloyd, and Baits I. There is simply no need to waste that much money on something that offers no real benefits. If the University is indeed trying to “Go Green” I suggest they put forth their full efforts, instead of backing up recycled carpet with three screen projectors in one single room.