By now, everyone has seen Monument Hall at least sometime during their stay here at CMU. For those that don’t know what Monument is, it’s that building smack dab in the middle of campus, only a few feet away from the university center.
Monument is a solely suite-style living throughout the co-ed hall and offers plenty of accommodations for its residents. There are two residents to a room and two suitemates in the room connected to the shared bathroom. This means that four boys or girls get a personal bathroom which, unlike a community bathroom, they must clean.
On the other hand, the limited access to the toilet offers a sanctuary from the less than satisfactory experiences in the traditional, community style halls.
Abby Oglesby, a current Monument resident, appreciates this private bathroom and is very willing to clean a little bit, in exchange for the privacy.
“It’s nice because I don’t have to use the community bathrooms and have to go in and see a huge wad of hair on the wall,” laughed Oglesby.
Other than the advantage of having the bathroom, each room has a balcony and personal closets. Outside the rooms, the hall provides a community center for its residents. The huge room is complete with numerous couches and chairs, a 50-inch flat screen and a pool table, essentially making this community room a mini Point.
No longer is it required to hope there is a table that hasn’t been taken by any of the entire CMU population, now Monument residents simply need to fight each other for that table.
This community area offers students a chance to bond in the dorms. Adding onto the community room, Monument also offers a great study room/computer room to its residents. Within the study lounge resides several computers, a meeting table and whiteboards for optimal hangman in-between study sessions.
Living in Monument fulfills almost every need a student might have, all except a kitchen. Unfortunately, Monument isn’t perfect and reflects this in the absence of a kitchen that halls like North Ave and Garfield are accommodated with. This means that practically every meal is going to be eaten in the cafeteria or meal transfer locations unless you’re willing to eat dry spaghetti and frozen meatballs.
“It would be kinda nice to have a kitchen to bake brownies,” Oglesby said.
There is only one other obvious problem within the hall, and that is the suitemate security. For some odd reason, there are no locks on the bathroom doors, leaving either room open for the next door neighbors to barge into at any time. It also leaves any snacks available for a starving suitemate. This problem has occurred within the walls of Monument, so investing in a safe might not be the worst idea.
Monument is in the center of it all for CMU students. This makes commuting to classes quick either side of campus. Like most dorms, the students who choose Monument seem to enjoy the benefits it offers.
