After shutting down during the 2024-25 academic year, Hill-Kitt is back online. Plenty of new additions and renovations will make both dorms — especially Kittelsby, take it from a former resident — far better to live in. But a controversial development is that Hilleboe’s rooms no longer have sinks. For some, this is devastating.
One does not truly understand the benefits of a room with a sink until they’ve experienced a room with a sink. Are you too tired to open the door, walk 35 feet to the nearest bathroom, open another door, and then walk the 35 feet back to the dorm, all just to brush your teeth? I have a solution: a room with a sink. Do you want a convenient place to fill up your water bottle at 1:00 a.m. on Sunday — only because you’re thirsty, of course? I have a solution: a room with a sink. Have you been waiting to use your overpriced hand soap from Bath and Body Works? Guess what, you can use it in a room with a sink.
Truthfully, having a sink in your room is only marginally more convenient. But, trust me, as someone who hasn’t had this luxury but currently has close friends who do, it evokes a legitimate jealousy. Sinks are nice additions to dorms; we all live in the same, small boxes, so having some appliance that makes life easier is always welcome. Walking to the bathroom at midnight to brush my teeth is not a major inconvenience, but it’d be awesome if I didn’t have to.
I’m sure the renovations will make Hilleboe rooms some of the nicest on campus, but it’s a shame they no longer have sinks. With Thorson transitioning to a first-year dorm, the only upperclassman options for rooms with sinks are Ytterboe and — sort of — Rand and New Hall. For the incoming first-years who will win the lottery of living in a Thorson sink room, just know that those of us who lived in Kittelsby pre-renovation sacrificed ourselves for your benefit — and we demand reparations.
