By: Jenna Compton

Gabrielle Harris, a sophomore at the University of Oregon, came to college to make her family proud and pursue her dreams. She is the first in her family to attend college and is currently studying psychology and biology. Harris has a calm demeanor but has qualities of confidence and independence. She conveys her emotions rationally but with purpose and intent.

Harris lives at Stadium Park apartments, a student housing complex near Autzen Stadium. According to Harris, although Stadium Park “puts up a really good front” to future tenants with tours of model residences, she and her roommates have had many issues with their apartment. Upon moving in last summer, Harris was supposed to be living with one other person. When she came to her apartment, however, there were two girls already living there and nobody had received notification from Stadium Park management about this change. In addition, the fan in her bedroom is broken and tiles are coming off the kitchen and bathroom floors. The ceiling is leaking and water comes in through the front window when it rains. At first, Harris called emergency maintenance to fix the window and although she was told someone would be over to fix it, no one showed up and there was no follow-up from the staff. She says this is typical of maintenance and that “any other requests [she’s] made have been pretty much forgotten. [Harris and her roommates] have to be really persistent about it or [maintenance staff] just won’t do it.”

This continued for a few months until Harris had enough. She went to speak to the office employees but they weren’t much help, making excuses for the maintenance staff and not giving her the results she wanted. Her father got involved and called the office but it seemed the only option to get any help was to make an appointment with John, the apartment manager, who was very difficult to get into contact with.

After many attempts, a meeting with the manager was arranged and so far, John has been helpful. Recently, maintenance has been more aware of the damages in Harris’ apartment but once something gets fixed, another problem arises. At the end of the day, Harris says,“Stadium Park has a lot of addendums and rules that they don’t…follow that other apartments do. This is not a typical living situation and I will never fall for it again.”