When I first arrived in Mainz, I was set to live in a dorm called Inter 1. I chose this dorm because at 213 euros, it was the cheapest.
After a long wait to get the key, my TOM-Buddy (a kind volunteer who chose to help me move in and get settled) led me and two of my “Pathfinders” (more volunteers to help me get settled in Mainz) on a tour of the dorm.
The first thing Isabel, the TOM-Buddy, said as we walked through the door was, “The kitchen on your floor burnt down last week, but it will be repainted soon.”
The place was an absolute shithole. It’s not just that the room was small, I can handle that, but the room was filthy. My Pathfinders both immediately said I couldn’t live there, but I reassured her that small room is no big deal.
And then we saw the rest of the dorm.
Isabel led us into the kitchen (remember, the one that had been on fire only just the week before?). The ceiling was still black from the fire and the whole place had a dirty, greasy feel to it. If the kitchen was gross, the adjoining common room was a slime pit. I won’t even talk about the horrors we saw in the bathroom.
The whole time Isabel showed us around, she looked embarrassed. We went to the student housing office to get me switched to a different dorm. The woman there explained that the university had said they were going to tear down Inter 1 for several years to build a new media center, but hadn’t.
She also said the dorms were where students from poorer nations stayed, and without it, they won’t have any other inexpensive options.
I’m not completely blameless in this fiasco. I chose the cheapest dorm, after all, thinking that it would be nice to spend money on food and travel instead of housing. I should’ve suspected something was wrong with Inter 1 because it was the only dorm on the student housing website that didn’t have interior pictures.
So I guess I should’ve known better, but shouldn’t there be some standards? A thriving university in the strongest economy in the EU that continually boasts of its large percentage of international students should be able to provide adequate, low-cost housing that the tenants won’t contract a disease from.
If the university does tear down Inter 1 to build a new media center, they should also construct new student housing that students in financial need can afford. A diverse body of international students helps educate the whole student body about other cultures and more closely ties our globalizing world together. It’s important that students from all over the world, poorer parts included, have the opportunity to study abroad.
I switched to a brand new dorm, Kisselberg, and I’m much happier here. Although it costs 335 euros per month, I’d take this single apartment over Inter 1 any day. Be wary of any low-cost housing that doesn’t post interior pictures online.
