Hale Wainani

I’ve been living in the same 2-​person single bedroom for the past 3 years in the Hale Wainani towers and like anything else there are pros and cons.
Pros:
— Located on-​campus with 1 – 2 Student Housing shuttles that pulls up between the towers every 10−15mins
— The place is spacious
— Having a large refrigerator, a simple coil stove and oven, living room and bathroom is convenient
— Furniture and bookshelves are included (chairs, 2 couches, tables, a twin size long mattress w/​frame)
— There’s a maintenance staff called Pilikea where they fix your toilet, shower, garbage disposal, etc. for free
— Parking for Upperclassmen is next to the building
Cons:
— There’s no AC like Frear Hall so the place can get very hot
— The rent keeps increasing sign every year I’ve been here
— It’s college so you get the occasional loud partying and sex noises from neighbors
— If you’re not a Junior or Senior, there’s a limited amount of parking next to the Wainani towers (I had to park my car at the Elite parking lot across from Bubbies… I always carried mace in my hand on my way back to my dorm)
— You can hear all of the conversations held in the parking lot as well as loud music and mopeds
I don’t like catching the bus to school or sitting in traffic in the morning so I like living in the apartments. I also like to prep my own meals for the week and not have to share a shower and toilet with the whole floor.

If you are a graduate student, I don’t recommend rooming here. There is a lot of partying, drinking, and drug use. Not a lot of sleep for graduate students or families. There is constantly a disregard for the rules. No reinforcement, when a person is caught breaking the rules. At times, this place is equivalent to living in a red light district. At night it is not a good study environment. Temptation to have the police on speed dial is always there.
Not only that, the interim housing policy and forcing graduate students and families to relocate every May and again in August is a nightmare and a ridiculous policy that puts strain on families and graduate students conducting research to finish their dissertations/​qualifying exams/​theses. Grades suffer as a result of this stress.
There is also no parking for out of state or out of country visitors visiting their children or far away friends coming for a visit. Hawi’i is o’hana, but that is a slap in the face.
The recycling is so far away from this area and near the freshmen dorms, that everyone just throws the recyclables in the trash with the garbage as a result. Note that the freshmen dorms have a meal plan.
Because this place is not ran well, efficiently, or conveniently, most graduate students don’t return here and opt for off campus housing after living one year or less here.
Ironically, they are raising the fees for living here the following year, but not changing any of the existing problems. They advertise to graduate students free housing if they are resident assistants. Don’t bother. It is not worth the headache this place already gives along with hair loss, insomnia, anxiety and other health problems.