Editorial: Students Left Afloat

Staff Editorial
Feb. 26, 2004, Page 6

The Doane College community has proven that no matter how dysfunctional it has been in the past, it can pull together in a crisis.
The second and third floors of Frees Hall flooded around midnight on Sunday night. The students who lived in those rooms suddenly found themselves without a place to live. Many spent the night crashed on friends’ floors and couches.
The next day, an e-mail went out from the Student Leadership Office asking for volunteers who had an extra living space to let the students stay with them until the mess was cleaned up. The e-mail also asked Doane students to help with the packing and movng.
Many people turned out to help pack and begin the long process of cleaning up the mess. The Doane community worked together to help some of its own. Considering that only a handful of students can be coerced to come to a dance or attend a speaker’s lecture, this is a big deal.
College students are sometimes accused of being self absorbed and apathetic. Sometimes those descriptions fit. But not this time. This time students volunteered their time to help others.
While this camaraderie should be rewarded, the focus should also remain on the displaced students.
These students, who have lost both their college home and many of their belongings, are unlikely to get reduced room rates, despite the fact that many had to move to an entirely new building with someone they didn’t know. These students deserve some form of compensation. It was a great inconvenience and they are suffering the repercussions from someone else’s stupidity. Yes, this was probably a careless accident. But didn’t your mother teach you not to throw a ball in the house?
Doane should do the right thing.
The students have proven that they can endure physical and mental hardships. Doane should be able to endure a little financial hardship, too.