Talk:Boston University Housing System

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Great job, guys. This is really good. We might want to add some graphics to this? Like the BU Logo at the top, and maybe some pictures of BSR, Warren, and StuVil in the mix?--Bud 20:14, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

I've been meaning to get out and take some pictures, but the weather's been atrocious lately. -Pjorg 23:10, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] 10 Buick Street Cafe conversion?

The bit about the "rumor" regarding the conversion of the Café, aside from being the purest of speculation, doesn't make any sense. For the size of the student population that will be living in the area after the opening of the new building, converting that relatively small space into a dining hall would be woefully inadequate. It would make far more sense to just build a new dining hall as part of the new building, especially since that building would house the residents that would need it, the dorm-dwellers.

Nonetheless, it would be perfectly acceptable to cite this as a rumor, if you could come up with some type of reference, or even if we could create some type of consensus here that such a rumor exists. I take pains to pay attention to such things, and I've never heard anything like that.

-Pjorg 06:14, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Edits by 128.197.216.246

This IP address belongs to the BU Office of Housing. (A traceroute resolves to 985 Commonwealth Avenue.)

While everyone is encouraged to contribute to the article, I would caution this user against deleting pieces of information that may be unfavorable to the housing system.

A case in point would be the deletion of the section detailing the University's practice of "saving" housing spots for freshman, as this is a well-known and documented occurrance.

Again, everyone is invited to contribute, but please try to maintain a neutral point-of-view. Thanks!

-Pjorg 17:16, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Problematic content

Following a complaint on OTRS, I have removed the paragraph under "Housing selection" which describes the "saving" system. My brief research has not revealed any sources to substantiate this claim. If the practice is indeed "a well-known and documented occurrance" then it should be a simple matter to provide reliable sources in order to verify the claims, and there will be no problem restoring the paragraph. --bainer (talk) 15:06, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

You're right, fair enough. I've replaced a revised copy of the paragraph, including a link to an article by the student newspaper. -Pjorg 22:09, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
As a reference, this one seems rather out-of-date. It was written in 2002 and includes the statement "At least until the Student Village is completed in 2005, housing will remain a problem for students." As it is now 2006, it would seem possible that the situation has been alleviated and some additional reference indicating that this is still a problem would be helpful. Pzavon 01:48, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
I've removed the paragraph again. Firstly there is the issue with the source being out of date, which Pzavon has pointed out: are there no more recent sources? Secondly the source is an opinion piece in the student newspaper, if the paragraph is to be re-added then the wording needs to reflect that those are the opinions of the newspaper. --bainer (talk) 04:33, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
Well, it is an opinion piece, but they refer to the practice as factual, not as the suppositions of the editorial staff. You're right that it's a bit old, and I'm working on finding something more recent, but it is a fact that this happens, as the housing office tells people every year when they go to reserve housing, "I'm sorry, you can't have any of these rooms, they're reserved for freshmen."
Nonetheless, this is not the place for independent research, so until I can find an article in the Freep (it's not likely to be discussed anywhere else) then I'm willing to let it be excluded from the article for the time being.
-Pjorg 20:40, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "Zagat"

Who went all "zagat guide" over the dining facilities on campus? Towers caf (towcaf) is known for ice cream toppings? All i remember was mushy and malfunctioning soft serve machines.... --Bud 07:55, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree, it does seem unencyclopedic at times, and and frankly I've never heard of anyone mentioning Towers and ice cream toppings in the same breath (nor have I ever heard it referred to as "TowCaf".)
It's unsourced, so I guess items like that are candidates for removal.
-Pjorg 17:17, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

for what its worth. I used the term "towcaf" too when i was there (1998-2004, on BSR 1998-2000). But ice cream toppings seems a little odd.--Bud 21:00, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Common Ground House

According to http://www.bu.edu/housing/residences/specialty/list.html, there is no "Common Ground Floor" in Warren Towers. While there may have been at some point, that is no longer the case. -Pjorg 02:43, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Huh... i added it because i saw it somewhere (which i forgot where). Oh well. Thanks for correcting it. I lived in the Common Ground House when i was there (98-00). Don't know why they even bothered. The residents were so diverse that by the time i leave everyone pretty much hate each other. So much for diversity.--Bud 05:42, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Ahh... i read it from http://www.bu.edu/union/backdoor/warren/index.html . I guess the site is not as accurate as i thought.--Bud 05:44, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Warrn Towers: not so big

I know that we here at BU like to think that we're the biggest and baddest, Warren towers is not actually the largest dorm in the US. A simple check of the BU housing website (http://www.bu.edu/housing/residences/largedorms/warren.html) lists its capacity at 1797. And I won;t even get into the argument over whether or not Warren Towers is actually 3 dorms or not. In any case, the Jester Center at University of Texas at Austin houses 2,945 (http://www.utexas.edu/student/housing/?site=1&scode=4&id=140), which is quite a bit more. I'm fixing all the pages that make reference to this. --Michael 21:06, 29 September 2006 (UTC)