Student story: Haymaker offers hidden benefits

By Katie Crandall/Advanced Writing

TV, mini-fridge, soap, alarm clock: These were the amenities enjoyed by past Flint Hills Publication Workshop campers.

Scratchy linens with a 180-thread count, thin towels, cramped bathrooms: This is what awaited students who arrived Sunday at Haymaker Hall.

In recent years, campers spent their nights in the Holiday Inn across the street from campus. This year, they were moved to the dorm rooms on campus.

Some campers have met this move with opposition, claiming that they did not expect to be staying in the dorms. Kapaun Mt. Carmel senior and previous attendee Maggie Dugan said she was miffed by the living situation.

“The hotel always had everything, so I wasn’t prepared to stay in a dorm at all,” Dugan said. Madeline Maloney, a camper from Blue Valley Northwest, said she would have planned better if she had known about the move.

“I just had a blanket,” she said, “I was so unprepared.”

While there are many reasons a hotel room would appeal to students more than a dorm, a recent tour of a typical Holiday Inn suite proved that, while not ideal, the dorms at Haymaker often offer more to a student’s way of life. Here are the differences:

Closet space: Each dorm room contains multiple shelves and drawers and a hanging rod to serve as closet space. This differs from the single clothing rod in a small alcove of the hotel room.

Access to power: In the hotel room, there was only one completely open outlet, which was positioned in an odd spot high on the wall. In the dorms, each side of the room has two reasonably-positioned outlets waiting for students to plug in their electronic devices.

Mirrors: Each dorm has one mirror measuring 36 inches by 29 inches. Things can get chaotic with four girls scattering make-up and hair supplies around the single mirror in their morning primping routines.

“It gets crowded and annoying with four girls,” Maloney said. “I like to have my space, and I definitely don’t have that here.”

This, however, also remains a problem at the Holiday Inn, where the only practical mirror, though slightly larger, is placed in the bathroom so only one person can use it at a time.

Food: While saying the Holiday Inn was a more ideal rooming environment, a few students appreciate the improved proximity to meals.

Kevin Adams, an editor from Lee’s Summit, said he likes the rooming situation better for this sole reason.

“The Inn was nice. It had shampoo, a TV and fresh towels,” Adams said. “But now the kids are close to food and can run downstairs and eat in time.”