The New University Union’s roof is leaking.

To be precise, by roof we mean foundation, and by New Union we mean the Pipe Dream office. When it rains outside, it pours down here.

UUW-B03, our fluorescently-lit cave tucked into the farthest corner of the Union’s basement, isn’t bad when we’re not splashing through mini-ponds bridged by live wires and network cables, or dodging saturated ceiling tiles plummeting toward our heads. But when we have to, say, move our computers off of desks that have become targets of small waterfalls, the office has a slightly less pleasant vibe.

We’ve gone to the powers-that-be for years, with complaints coming in forms ranging from pleasant e-mails to administrators, to frantic phone calls to the police. As we desperately cover our equipment with paper towels, the University gives us the run-around. When we call the Union’s management, they send us to Maintenance. When we call Maintenance, they send us to Physical Facilities. When we call Physical Facilities, they send us back to Go. (Do not collect $200.) In the meantime, we’ve moved our server to higher ground. They told us they fixed the problem over the summer, but predictably it seems that their quick-fix made the crack in the foundation worse.

And as much as we’d like to make this editorial all about us, we won’t. Our leaky ceiling is our problem, sure, but Binghamton University allowing things like leaky ceilings to happen and continue to exist ‘ this is an issue for all of us.

As mentioned above, our waterlogged office is the product of a crack in the foundation of the New Union, the centerpiece of student life on campus, a building that opened not even 10 years ago, in 2001. It’s worrying that our school didn’t seem to fully take into consideration the effect of rain on buildings in a place like Binghamton. It’s even more worrying to watch the University continue to speedily construct new buildings as their ‘old’ ones steadily decay.

But if we have water falling through our roof, we know there must be other problems left unsolved at this school. Every student has little things they want fixed. What’s your leaky ceiling? And what do you do about it?

The University has been entirely unreceptive to our complaints. Then again, fixing a foundation is no easy task ‘ and the equipment in our office wasn’t paid for by the school. But your leaky ceiling may have better luck with administration bureaucrats, even if ultimately the Couper Administration Building answers to no one.

Thankfully, there are other campus power brokers who are more likely to take reasonable claims into consideration.

The Student Association has opened up recently, at least the E-Board has. They are elected leaders, after all, and they are your fellow students. It’s easy to get in touch with our student government and, unlike student governments at most schools, our SA is relatively autonomous from the administration.

Even Sodexo has a way for students to file complaints. Have a problem with your food? Talk to a manager. According to Executive Chef Jon Enright, menus are based in part on ‘customer eating preferences,’ and students ‘have the ability to change what we do’ (See page 13).

And heck, there’s always Pipe Dream. We may not have the day-to-day practical applications of the administration, SA or Sodexo, but show us something wrong about the school and we’ll raise a little hell for you. That is, if our office is still above water.