Disaster and empty promises is all the Pavilions seem to be able to bring.

Since Harvey, the Pavilions have been a disastrous rushed job that left students questioning when it will be completely finished. Now students are left wondering if they’ll find a place to live.

The Pavilions have been raided with theft since the Great Flood, and now students are left with even worse insecurity thanks to the neglect of the university.

Karlee Bradley, a resident of the Pavilions, has been affected by the empty promises continually given since last year. She was one of the unlucky many that had to live in hotels all last year. Now this year, her apartment was one of the first that flooded.

Bradley was first alerted to something strange going on when she heard water running loudly through the walls. She went out into the hallway of her apartment and heard some screams. When she went back to her room, water was flowing out of her air vent, and eventually began coming from multiple places in the ceiling including light fixtures, smoke detectors and the speaker the building fire alarm sounds from. Things were chaotic, and she and her roommates grabbed what they could and exited the building.

That night was a long, stressful one for all students housed in the Pavilions. Even now the stress has yet to completely go away since most haven’t gotten all their things back yet.

Some may question the item return process being used. Everyone’s things are being moved around by movers that the university claims is being monitored by staff. However, a lot of people’s stuff has wound up missing. Many theft reports have been made to UPD.  Junior, Daniela Torres, reported that her Beats studio headphones were stolen and her roommate’s iPod was stolen as well. “They (headphones) were on my nightstand so they weren’t in the water. When I got back today they weren’t there.”

There have been a lot of people moving in and out of the building, things have been stolen, and it comes down to St. Edward’s not being able to give students the security they need. “I truly appreciate everyone in all of the administrative departments at St. Eds coming together and helping us the best they can,” Bradley says, “but I feel like it’s one big mess.”

Bradley says that no one has been able to answer the questions she and other students had while trying to recover their things.

“I think it all comes down to Res Life since they allowed us to live in the rushed apartments in the first place,” Bradley says.

Why would St. Edward’s University allow students to live in a building that is obviously unsafe?

Water has been pouring in to rooms since before students moved in, and others had leakages and damage as well after moving in. According to junior Catarina Benavides, there were numerous people in the Pavilions who had wet spots in the ceilings one particularly serious leak was on the fifth floor. “We had a wet spot on the rugs for like weeks and they just put one of the little fan dryers next to it and that’s all they did.” Yet, the University is claiming the Great Flood is an unforeseen circumstance.

They should’ve seen this coming with the previous water damage, and pieces falling apart everywhere as was stated in my previous Pavilions editorial.

It’s a huge safety issue as well. There are no fire alarms for residents to pull in order to warn people, and this was an issue during the flooding. Many residents were unaware of the evacuation and had remained in their rooms. What would have happened if this was a fire?

And it’s no wonder people may have been breaking into the apartments to steal things since all you need to do is punch through the styrofoam doors and walls that seem to break off on their own.

How was this passed off by an inspector for people to live in? Why did the university let this happen?

St. Edward’s has been giving students empty promises about the Pavilions and put residents’ lives in danger by letting them house in a rushed construction job. 

Now many students want to know the truth about why this all happened, and aren’t they entitled to the truth?