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| - Beware- the misleading 5 star reviews are written by the Illini Tower staff themselves, and they are paying students to write 5 star reviews.
Recently, Campus Living Villages (the company running IT) has hired a brand new general manager and a brand new maintenance, food and RA staff, but these people did little to nothing to improve the conditions of IT. Roy Myles, the new general manager, lied and mislead everyone about the improvements he was going to make once he starts his new job.
In fact, if I were going to list all of the bad things about this place, I might as well write a book about it. I'll start with the obvious. First, this dump has got to be demolished. It is a worn-out building built in the 1960's that has not been renovated since. On the U of I campus, there are 2 dorms in the six pack that are rated "worst dorms in America". I visited those dorms and those were in better shape than IT!!!! The only part of the building that looks "nice" is the lobby area- which was renovated intentionally in order to trick visitors, prospective students and parents into signing a lease.
The IT staff, when giving tours, use the SAME ROOM, which is never occupied so it looks brand new. But in reality, your room will most likely be in god-awful condition. On move-in day, I tested my water, heat and AC to see if it works. All 3 were broken and the maintenance crew took about a week to fix. My first week at IT was WITHOUT water and AC!!!
Speaking of AC, heating and water, the maintenance crew shuts off the AC after Thanksgiving and never bothered to turn on the heat during winter. The entire winter, there was no heat, even that one day with -20F. That is illegal and on the grounds for a lawsuit. IT does not bother to shovel the sidewalks and the entrances when it snows, which again, is a violation of snow removal laws in Champaign. The reason for all this, is to SAVE MONEY, while leaving residents with literally nothing.
The social life in this place is lacking and close to non-existent. 90% of the student body here is international Chinese students, many of whom prefer to study and are not as sociable as American students. I feel pity for them, as I want them to experience a diverse student body like in other dorms. (If someone here is from China and could translate my review to Chinese for them, that would be greatly appreciated. I want them to avoid this place as well).
The food, is simply disgusting and poorly prepared. It literally looks like a 5 year old cooked it. The cafeteria crew consists of ex-convicts, felons and murderers. In essence, all the food is cheap, unhealthy and uncooked. A majority of the food is canned. The worst part is, THEY SERVE LEFTOVERS for 3 days straight!! Everything is deep-fried, and the salad bar is not fresh at all. One time, I noticed a bug in the lettuce. As one reviewer put it, "it gets old quick". Your credits don't roll over to the next semester, and it is a way to ensure that they make extra money off of you.
The internet is poor, and unreliable. Service shuts down nearly every week for hours at a time. In the rooms, poor attempts at making it "look nice and modern" were made, but ended up failing. For example, a piece of unpainted plywood was nailed to the wall as a make-shift shelf.
Also, TONS of hidden fees for the smallest of reasons. At the end of the semester, every resident gets charged a $25 "damage" fee, without explanation. The cost of this place is nearly 3 times the cost of regular university housing, which is a lot better. For both semesters you will pay: ~$16,000 for your room, $6,000 for a meal plan, $2,000 for parking privileges, nearly $1,000 for laundry and $50 in extra fines, which equate to a total of $25,000. That's 2x more than the cost of tuition!!
With all the money that IT is taking in from residents, they refuse to use it for any building or service improvements. For example, the elevators are old, from the 70's, and are slow. Staircase use are forbidden. The hallways contains wall coverings, carpets and ceiling panels from the 70's. The rooms themselves are disgusting, and will likely have holes in the walls, mold and dust everywhere. The walls are thin and everything you say will be heard from your neighbors next door. You can hear even the toilets flushing next door and in the floors below and above you. This place has violated numerous building safety inspections in the past, but the management team never does anything about it.
In essence, this place is appalling and sickening. If anyone knows a bit of American history in the early 1900's, imagine the poor and crowded tenements that urban factory workers lived in. IT would be equivalent to that. No wonder every year, IT has seen a decline in leases. Muckraking journalists in the early 1900's who exposed the public to the horrors and misery of crowded filthy apartments have successfully shut them down. Maybe U of I students should do the same to IT in 2015!!
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