Naismith Hall

So I finally have decided to write my review of Naismith Hall. I feel it necessary for me to forewarn everyone considering living here since I was never told about the conditions. To all you future students planning on living here I would strongly suggest you reconsider. Naismith Hall was one of the reasons I decided to transfer out of Kansas. It was because of Naismith I choose to visit the library all the time and manage to pull straight A's to go onto a better school. But that accomplishment had it's obvious cost's.
Before I get started, I would recommend anyone who will be attending Kansas University to stay in the regular dorms (Lewis and Ellsworth), they are newly renovated and the rooms and the buildings themselves are much nicer and so are the people. Your experience at KU will be much better. But be careful, if you have already signed the lease at Naismith you will encounter some difficulties.

1.) Naismith Hall has over a 90% Jewish occupancy (Not Exaggerating). 300-350 kids living in building.
2.) The staff and management of the building is terrible. I have plenty of stories to offer anyone who wishes to know, just email me and I will inform you.
3.) The management tries to save money whenever possible by closing down the cafeteria early (day b/4 classes stop, b/4 games etc.), and not opening until 11:30am on the weekends.
4.) There are truly no rules here. Since Kansas University and the KU P.D have no jurisdiction over what happens at Naismith Hall (Its Private), the only form of discipline must come from the Lawrence Police Department. Kids get so rowdy at night that they must hire off-duty cops on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights to stay till 6am in the morning. (Imagine the noise).
5.) Problems with the internet should be expected since it is a dorm.
6.) In a building with no rules and first-year students, the level of noise from 4pm-5am is terrible (Paper thin walls & cheap doors). I have friends who attend Univerity of Wisconsin Madison and Iowa University and their dorms even on the weekends are sanctuaries compared to Naismith.
7.) The Drinking and Drug use in Naismith is out of control. One kid last year was growing weed under his sink and got away with it. Waking up to elevators filled with urine, beer, and occasionally puke were common sights Thursday-Sunday (Except when future resident tours were to be given)
8.) Dont be sold by the movie theatre, it is open mabye one day a week and only if a R.A is in there. You cannot use it any other times unless a R.A accompanies you (Which except for the occasional Bears game, is never.)
9.) The pool is ok, that is if kids don t throw any garbage in it on the weekends.
10.) Laundry machines work well.
11.) The food is not good but not horrible, its dorm food so its to be expected.
12.) The maid service is a nice thing to have when they do come (usually once every 2 weeks, sometimes twice in 2 weeks if you are lucky).

To finish up my review I must include one short story. To summarize the type of staff Naismith hires, a R.A who was my Suite-mate had the tendency of leaving the shower on (which separates the two rooms) for over 5 or 6 hours at a time while not even in it ( he would be in his room getting high) then pass out or do other weird things in his room. He would do this multiple times a day and night. Imagine going to bed at 11pm only to wake up throughout the night till 4:30 am and the shower still be on. I confronted him (The R.A) and it stopped for awhile but then again continued. One time the shower was left on for so long it had overflowed the tub and flooded into our room a good two feet. I then took pictures and contacted management after writing a lengthy letter explaining the problems I had been encountering. The manager then talked to the R.A and the problem resided only for a short while. Remind you he only talked to the R.A, not fired him even though he already had other complaints against him and would get high in his room that you could clearly smell through the door and vents.

-Also, Kids would love to get drunk and throw glass bottles from their windows out onto the cars parked into the lot below, look it up its in the Kansas blotter from sometime between November-March. A tip is to not pay for parking at Naismith but instead park over in Oliver lot by getting a friend to get you a pass.

Don t live here, go look at Lewis and Elsworth your experience will be much better in the KU Dorms, I guarantee it. Living here was the worst year of my life but I made it and am going onto better places now. It really is to bad to because I feel I might have stayed if I had lived in the regular dorms (Which I tried to do the 3rd week but Naismith makes you sign the lease contract which they had covered all their bases that would not allow you to cancel your lease unless you found a sub-lease or paid a enormous penalty, even with the conditions that were present.) Good luck to you all and I hope this was of any help to you.

Last updated: 12/7/2008

Recommended: NO Overall Rating

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