Borden 1

Delphia Borden

Dr. Shelly Palmer

English 2111

14 December 2019

Where is the Water in Woodson?

Reasonable access to a reliable source of potable water is necessary for the success and

safety of the resident students of Woodson Hall. Unfortunately, at Catawba College, there is a

disturbing lack of access to safe drinking water for its Woodson residents. Water acts as an

essential tool for all living creatures to survive, thrive, and remain generally healthy. These

students rely on Catawba to provide a secure and effective living situation for the period of time

in which they attend the college as a resident. This means resident halls must be equipped with

the necessary amenities. Beyond the bathroom sinks and showers, access points to water are few

and difficult to find. As a building designed to host the bodies of numerous active freshmen,

Woodson needs better availability of drinking water. It is necessary to build more access points

to clean water in order to protect and maintain the wellbeing of the residents of Woodson Hall.

Woodson Hall stands as a four-story residence hall designed for a portion of the freshmen

of Catawba College, although it also occasionally houses upperclassmen as well. The first floor,

half of the second floor, and third floor all have sections for boys, while the fourth floor and the

other half of the second floor is home to the female students. There are two bathrooms located on

the opposite ends of the second, third, and fourth floors, which permit access to persons of the

appropriate gender, as stated on the door. The first floor, however, is only half as long as all of

the other floors, with only one bathroom. Assuming students of different gender never mingle,
 Borden 2

this allows everyone fairly decent access to unfiltered tap water while in the dormitory.

Realistically, however, students do have guests of different genders in their rooms.

If a girl visiting her male friend on the third floor becomes thirsty, she’s required to climb

the stairs either up or down to arrive at a bathroom she’s permitted to enter. This achievement is

met only with strange, metallic-tasting water, filling her glass. However, if that student decides

she wants filtered water she’ll have to hunt until she finds the one dirty, hidden, water fountain

that creeps behind a wall on the boys’ side of the second-floor. By now, if the student has been

deterred by the strips of soggy ramen resting by the mouthpiece of the fountain, she can venture

into the second floor lobby area where drink vending machines have numerous options of sugary

sodas, but no water. Ultimately forcing many residents and guests to resort to the unhealthy

alternative of soda is not an acceptable option when the goal should be supporting the health and

success of the students.

A solution to this unhealthy, unproductive, and generally upsetting issue cannot be to

expect the students to supply their own suitable drinking water. The additional monetary cost

beyond housing and the environmental impact, are both too much to burden the students with

when they’re already paying exorbitant fees to attend what claims to be a fairly sustainable

college. It’s necessary for Catawba to take responsibility for this shortcoming and, at a

minimum, install filtered water access points in certain high traffic areas of Woodson. The

second-floor lobby would be a fantastic location for what is hopefully the first of multiple

filtered water access stations. This way students and their guests have an easily located, reliable

access point to water within their dormitory. The most ideal solution supports the addition of a

filtered water stations being installed into or on the outside of the bathrooms. Based on the layout

of the second-floor girls’ bathroom, it could be possible to upgrade the farthest sink from the
 Borden 3

door with the hardware to allow filtered water access. If the layout of the other bathrooms

happens to be fairly similar, the same changes apply easily.

Filtered water access points can be defined as; filtered water fountains, bottle refill

stations, and even simply faucets equipped with the proper hardware to safely filter water. It’s

not a complicated issue that needs to be tended to, just an important one. It’s unreasonable to

continue to deny the residents of Woodson Hall access to one of their most basic needs. Perhaps

these necessary editions haven’t been made due to cost or space concerns. The hallways of

Woodson aren’t particularly wide and remodeling could potentially leave certain rooms

unavailable for students until the remodel is complete, jeopardizing the portion of the college’s

income that is based on housing. However, it is entirely possible to complete this project during a

seasonal break, allowing residency to return to normal in the following semester. If spaces inside

the bathrooms and in the lobby were allocated for the project, there could be little-to-no

disruption to the current environment of Woodson. Adding water access stations would improve

the overall quality of living within the dormitory for the students by saving them money and

allowing them to have access to one of the tools needed to maintain proper health. Ultimately,

the rewards outweigh the troubles that could be associated with this renovation.