John DeSteno

Review of Stiles Hall

To all incoming Drexel upperclassman/graduate stud...

To all incoming Drexel upperclassman/graduate students: Avoid this building at all costs and seek off campus housing elsewhere. I lived in Stiles for my first semester as a law student not knowing what I was walking into since I checked off that I required housing on my application. As a student who has resided in every kind of housing assignment imaginable from tripled dorms without AC to Greek houses through my undergraduate years at Rowan, this is the worst place I have ever seen. First of all, this building is not located on Drexel's campus. It is approximately a 15 minute drive to University City. This may sound cliche but Stiles is not located in a safe neighborhood. I have had three incidents in the four months I stayed there of drug addicts on the street harassing and threatening me while simply walking to the Dragon Shuttle. If you look outside on to Wood St, you will see a line of people sleeping on the sidewalk, lighting a spoon or sticking needles in their arms, especially at night. Not to mention I have never seen a single Drexel Police officer, Philadelphia Police officer or security guard anywhere near the place as the neighborhood is not patrolled at all. However, if you decide to have a friend or family member visit they are required have their mugshot taken and ID held upon entering the building and many (not all) of the desk guards were very rude to students. The building does not have any cable or means of watching television. If you are lucky, once in a while Netflix might work without crashing the entire time if you own a Roku stick. Wifi barely exists either. Another major issue was the plumbing in our apartment. Twice in my last month the pipes downstairs connected to our toilet caused it to overflow into the floor hallway and facilities had to place 5 obnoxious fans in our apartment for days and tear up the walls. It is further difficult to do laundry when there is one washer on the entire floor. The worst part of my experience was when a woman followed me from Arch St to the building claiming she was going to hurt me because I did not give her money. When I reported this to Drexel's housing office stating that I no longer felt safe and requested to be released for the Spring semester they completely ignored my message and proceeded to charge me $2000 for not coming back to this rat hole. While my academic experience at Drexel has been nothing short of outstanding, this place should be condemned and the University should be ashamed for placing students in such conditions. I now reside at The Link in University City and I highly recommend it as the area is very safe, affordable and staff are very helpful.