I don’t know who fed you the BS about Bates being “coveted” but it is definitely “one of a kind on the USC campus. Bates was built using apparently poorly copied, maximum security, prison plans. Bates has been the least favored dorms on campus for years (and the coop once sported the “temporary” Honeycomb Dorms, that were supposed to last 10 years only to finally be torn down more than 50 years later).
The balconies, once sold as a feature, ensure you get wet leaving and entering the building and were once the site of many a “gravity experiment” featuring water balloons, bottles, cans, chair and the occasional refrigerator. It got so bad that they “enclosed them” with chain link fence to prohibit most of the experiments. Bates should have been torn down as soon as the new dorms were finished but USC, chasing the almighty dollar, needs more room for the burgeoning freshman classes…
Bates has always had roaches, as well as other pests. Also remember water of questionable origin (though the smell certainly gave you a clue) leaking in one area. That was around 15 years ago, I doubt much has changed.
This is totally unsanitary and USC should be forced to move all students out of Bates House to a clean dorm. Nothing short of “tenting” the entire building will rid the place of roaches, a.k.a. Palmetto bugs?. They need to get off the almighty dollar and do the right thing!!
The cockroaches are definitely not a new issue at USC. This has been going on since at least the 1990s when I was a student there. They weren’t just Palmetto bugs, either. Palmetto bug is another name for the American cockroach. They aren’t as harmful as German cockroaches because they don’t usually carry the same harmful bacteria, eat human food, and create large infestations. They typically live in trees and just try to come inside for the air conditioning and heat. If there are hundreds of them, they are probably German cockroaches who are going to try to stay inside and eat the students’ food. You can tell the difference in Palmetto bugs vs. German cockroaches by the size, tendency to fly, coloration, etc. I remember having to keep food in a mini refrigerator, plastic bags, airtight totes, etc. to keep roaches from getting all into them. Roaches were always crawling all over everything. The university might spray for them, but it didn’t help much or for long. We always complained about it, but the problem was never resolved. It’s just something you had to learn to live with and try to move out of the dorms as soon as you got the opportunity. It’s definitely not sanitary and it makes me upset to hear that this issue is still ongoing.
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I don’t know who fed you the BS about Bates being “coveted” but it is definitely “one of a kind on the USC campus. Bates was built using apparently poorly copied, maximum security, prison plans. Bates has been the least favored dorms on campus for years (and the coop once sported the “temporary” Honeycomb Dorms, that were supposed to last 10 years only to finally be torn down more than 50 years later).
The balconies, once sold as a feature, ensure you get wet leaving and entering the building and were once the site of many a “gravity experiment” featuring water balloons, bottles, cans, chair and the occasional refrigerator. It got so bad that they “enclosed them” with chain link fence to prohibit most of the experiments. Bates should have been torn down as soon as the new dorms were finished but USC, chasing the almighty dollar, needs more room for the burgeoning freshman classes…
Bates has always had roaches, as well as other pests. Also remember water of questionable origin (though the smell certainly gave you a clue) leaking in one area. That was around 15 years ago, I doubt much has changed.
This is totally unsanitary and USC should be forced to move all students out of Bates House to a clean dorm. Nothing short of “tenting” the entire building will rid the place of roaches, a.k.a. Palmetto bugs?. They need to get off the almighty dollar and do the right thing!!
The cockroaches are definitely not a new issue at USC. This has been going on since at least the 1990s when I was a student there. They weren’t just Palmetto bugs, either. Palmetto bug is another name for the American cockroach. They aren’t as harmful as German cockroaches because they don’t usually carry the same harmful bacteria, eat human food, and create large infestations. They typically live in trees and just try to come inside for the air conditioning and heat. If there are hundreds of them, they are probably German cockroaches who are going to try to stay inside and eat the students’ food. You can tell the difference in Palmetto bugs vs. German cockroaches by the size, tendency to fly, coloration, etc. I remember having to keep food in a mini refrigerator, plastic bags, airtight totes, etc. to keep roaches from getting all into them. Roaches were always crawling all over everything. The university might spray for them, but it didn’t help much or for long. We always complained about it, but the problem was never resolved. It’s just something you had to learn to live with and try to move out of the dorms as soon as you got the opportunity. It’s definitely not sanitary and it makes me upset to hear that this issue is still ongoing.