Everyone's favorite artificial deus ex machina of friendships, the Housing Lottery, is almost upon us! Usually an occasion for last minute research, Bwog will be running a series of posts on all Columbia dorms, including a feature on why it's smarter to live with Barnard girls, and a point-counterpoint on living off-campus. This way, when your 5th suite member decides to move off-campus with her boyfriend of 3 months, you'll be so well-versed in Columbia real-estate you'll be able to confidently greet your new 4 person suite in Ruggles. Today: Wien.

Wien:

Wien residence hall, flanked by Jerome Greene Hall and the palatial confines of Casa PrezBo, doesn't seem so bad at first glance. "It's not that bad," you might even suggest. However, you will soon learn that it is, actually, quite bad. Those 300 plus god-forsaken souls assigned to Wien each year know full well that it surely lives up to its dastardly reputation day in and day out. Its cold, white walls, awkwardly placed hall clock that never seems to have the correct time, and the remains of the Wien Food Court, soon to be office for Alice!, will greet you with a pervading sense of eeriness and doom. Feel free to stop by the consistently vacant lounge that seems to be good only for the occasional Chowdah performance or whittle away at the computers in the second floor computer lounge, but never expect to be able to print a single document on the flimsy NINJA printer so kindly set up by CUIT. Upon passing the guard, you enter the world of Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. As the bright white lights shine down on your head, Wien's awkward hallway entrance doors, added touch of chicken wire on its windows, and long corridors are sure to make you squeamish.Yet, you still might wonder what gives Wien a cozy institutional establishment? Perhaps it is the 86 square foot singles with toilets placed in the far corner of the room that allow for only two inches of movement between your desk and the bed.

Word has it that Schapiro 12 has been infested with bed bugs since the start of the school year. Students report that they often wake up with bites all over them and some have even discovered the nasty little creatures in their books. Unfortunately, Housing's been extremely unresponsive to this issue.

There has been an exterminator on the floor every week putting traps randomly on the carpet, even though the word bedbugs suggests that the traps would be better placed on the bed. Students actually moved the traps to their beds to capture the bedbugs. Then, the exterminator either pointed out "empty" traps or claimed that the bugs in the trap were just "carpet mites."

Now that a few students have been bitten severely, Housing has finally admitted that there are bedbugs. Two rooms have been fumigated, one of them twice. Unfortunately, Housing still refuses to clean the hallway and carpet even though bedbugs can easily travel from one room to another. Housing, you've really let yourself go on this one...