Unveristy Court: copy and paste 'Unveristy' and spell check it. It's wrong. By Jacob Ploesch / Staff writer

Every residence hall has its own reputation, but the University Court seems to have acquired one decidedly bad.

The Courts are likened to the slums, especially when compared to other apartment-style campus housing such as Westmoreland Hall.

New students and parents sometimes confuse the Courts with off-campus housing.

"This is said because it [University Court] is located across the street from the other parts of campus," said Troy Ross, coordinator of housing and residence life. "However, if students attend the Pitt-Oakland campus, they probably would not consider themselves off-campus if their residence hall was located across the street or even on the outskirts of campus."

The Courts are also excluded from the campus online tour. The other residence halls and the fountain, however, are included.

The walk from the Courts to campus is a sore spot for some students.

An average walk to Chambers Hall from the Courts can take between 7-10 minutes, depending on weather conditions. But the walk is comparable to that of Franklin House to Chambers Hall, according to Ross.

One look at the upperclassman parking lot in front of the University Court during the day will show that some students have decided to risk the ticket and park in commuter parking spots rather than walk to class, especially in weather conditions unfavorable to walking.

"I really like how close the parking spots are to the rooms," said Courts resident Joy Pinkney.

Additionally, students also seem to think the University Court has more drug and alcohol violations that other residence halls.

"The perception that the University Court has the most problems with alcohol and drug violations just is not factually accurate," Ross said. "The University Court is on par with other residence halls as far as policy violations."

The Court's street sign lends itself to the notion the buildings are home to the less-than-average--the sign is misspelled.

The green sign names the road going into the upperclassman parking lot and it reads, "Unveristy Court Apt."

It isn't a university-owned sign, but the misplaced vowel plagues residents of the Courts as just one more thing wrong with them.

The buildings are accused of being a poor place to meet people, but in the Court's quad-style apartments just as much interaction takes place between residents as elsewhere on campus. A walk inside shows that an open-door policy is in use in most quads.

Though they get knocked hard, liking the Courts is after all a personal preference than a matter-of-fact.

"[T]here is a natural tendency to compare residence halls and try to decide which is best. But not all students will agree what makes one residence hall better than another," Ross said. "So trying to say which hall is the best is a futile endeavor because it all comes down to what each individual is looking for in their living environment."