<p>I just got my housing decision and I'm at Markley. Can someone tell me everything about it?</p>
<p>get ready to party</p>
<p>Nice... any other info on the food the lounges and stuff like that</p>
<p>How's the party scene at Oxford?</p>
<p>I'm wondering too Nick (I'll be there next year). Supposedly it is next to a bunch of frat houses (correct me if I'm wrong) so I suppose there is always that...</p>
<p>I just read something on wikipedia about asbestos at Markley is anything being done about this></p>
<p>I've never gone to the caf during normal service times (only gone during summer/spring break), but it's been decent when I've gone there. It's one of the main three cafeterias on campus (South Quad for central, Markley for the Hill, Bursley for north), so it's going to have longer hours than most other dorms.</p>
<p>Each floor of each wing of the building has a small lounge, some of them have a TV in them and all of them have a table/some chairs/a couch, pretty basic. The main floor by where the front desk is has about 3 big lounges which are air conditioned, one of which has a big screen tv. Computing center, pool tables, and some kind of cafe thing in the basement. Sand volleyball court outside. Rooms are pretty small, and pretty much unlivable unless you get a loft built. Not very many electrical outlets, so you'll need some power strips.</p>
<p>Right now the dorm is closed for renovations, so maybe they're taking care of whatever asbestos issue there is? I've lived for 4 weeks the past two summers and haven't noticed anything. I guess I can find out when camp starts up again in about 2 weeks.</p>
<p>It's decent; Far from where most of your classes will be, as well as the nearest bus stop. But it's still on Central campus. The rooms themselves aren't very nice though. I don't know about the food at Markley. Markley is also considered the "party" dorm cause it's 98% freshman or something (95?)</p>
<p>i thought it was on hill</p>
<p>Well the Hill is part of "central campus"</p>
<p>No it's not. Housing is divided into Central, the Hill, and North. Furthermore, the Hill (and Markley especially) are best considered part of the medical campus. The only real advantage Markley has over North Campus in terms of location is that it's feasible that you can walk back late at night after bus service ends.</p>
<p>How is the bus service in general, especially on weekdays? Do they take a long time to come during those brutally cold winter mornings? Are they usually crowded?</p>
<p>They are installing fire sprinklers this summer -- so the asbestos was related to the construction - which will be over. There aren't going to be lofts allowed in Markley this year. All the rooms will have the furniture that you can loft. Rooms are small -- so just don't bring anything that you don't need and make sure you and your roommate don't each bring a fridge.</p>
<p>Monday through Friday during the day, you'd take the Link run by the AATA from Oxford to campus (you ride AATA buses free with MCard) and it runs every 15 minutes.
<a href="http://aata.org/rideguide/Link.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://aata.org/rideguide/Link.pdf</a></p>
<p>Also, from 11PM-2AM, the university provides a separate bus from central campus out to oxford running every 15 minutes.</p>
<p>In general, the buses are pretty reliable, and almost never fill up (especially the Oxford buses). I've only seen a bus reach capacity once. It was the #6 bus which goes from downtown Ann Arbor, to the mall, then to Meijer, and eventually to Ypsi. It was already pretty crowded (I think all the seats were taken up), then we added 5 people from math camp going to the mall, and then we tried to add another 40 or so people going to laser tag. The guy shut the door on us with about 4 people left to go. So you can fit a lot of people into buses.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info! I suppose I'll be using the bus quite often, for going to classes, library (if I dont' feel like studying in the lounges at Oxford) and dining halls. I was at PSU my freshman year and the buses there were always crowded and sometimes you couldn't get on. I'm glad that its not the same at UM.</p>
<p>Well technically if you look at campus maps; Hill/Central campus are all "Central Campus". Although it is true that Hill is separate from the diag/central campus area (Hill is north-east of it)</p>
<p>I lived in Markley last year. It's definitely a party dorm, I had a lot of fun. Very social, doors are always open, always something going on.</p>
<p>On my floor we never really used the lounge. We had a ping-pong table but it broke partway through the year. I used it to do work at 3am on a few occasions so I wouldn't wake up my roommate though. On floors where there are tvs, I can remember kids gathering to watch.</p>
<p>Food is ok...South Quad and Bursley are better. I usually ate lunch at South Quad during the week before I would go back to Markley.</p>
<p>The asbestos was only on the first floor (called the basement), they probably will have dealt with that while they install fire sprinklers.</p>
<p>All of the rooms will now have the stackable furniture, so lofts will not be allowed. In my room, we did an illegal setup. We put the beds all the way on top of the desk and dresser (so they are very close to the ceiling, legal), and alligned one of the beds with the window. This is illegal because there is no guardrail along the window side of the bed, and you could potentially fall. But, it creates a lot of room. On move-in day, walk down the hall and see what other kids are doing, find something you like.</p>
<p>Volleyball outside is pretty popular, but personally me and my friends much preferred going out and throwing the football, almost every day when it was nice for probably at least a half-hour.</p>
<p>You will need an electrical strip. There are only two sets of outlets in the room with two outlets each, right next to the windows on each side. You will probably need some extension cords for your tv and fridge as well.</p>
<p>The building gets VERY hot, especially on the upper floors (I lived on the fifth floor.) Lofting your bed adds to this because it is closer to the ceiling. You will need to invest in a good fan. I highly recommend the flat square ones, they will fit right in front of your screen and blow in a lot of air. Mine cost $10 or so at meijer, great buy. But I still used a blanket while sleeping less than 10 times probably. Otherwise i just slept under a thin sheet.</p>
<p>If you get a room that has the ledge on it, you have to be careful. On one hand, you can climb through your window if you are locked out. On the other, there were several thefts this year of laptops as kids climbed through the windows while residents were out of their rooms. In my room, I enjoyed having the window open, but I also had a lot of expensive stuff that I did not want stolen. I wanted to keep the window open while I was out of the room so that my room didn't overheat. Long ago, a girl at Markley fell through the window of the fifth floor and died. As a result, they doctored the windows so they cannot open as far by putting a metal bar in the window frame. Now the windows can not swing open as far. But the point where they installed the bar still wasn't enough to keep kids from climbing through the window. So I took some pennies and jammed them above the metal bar, as a result, the window opens to a much smaller angle now. (I used a pair of scissors to slightly cut the penny so it would fit in after being hit with an improvised hammer.) Bingo, now nobody can climb through my window. But it might suck when some kid down the line tries to climb through the window but realizes he can't.</p>
<p>I doubt you will take the bus to Central Campus much (easier to just walk), but the commuter buses both stop right outside the building, so it is easy to get to and from North Campus during the week.</p>
<p>Oh, I also forgot what will be a huge bummer for Markley residents. The new Mott's Children's Hospital is going up now across the street. The construction at the hospital is can be very loud. Towards the end of the year the entire building was shaking at points. Many kids complained this year and they delayed the construction start time for the Markley construction to 8am (still very early), but the hospital is big money and I think that they'll probably be starting work there at 7am.</p>
<p>Aaargh, I guess that'll give me more motivation to wake up early, go run, then go home.</p>
<p>the buses to/from north campus get very crowded during peak times.. weekday mornings when everyone is going to class, i often walked up to baits because it was a stop earlier than bursley and by the time the buses come down to bursley theyre usually full.. but they come frequently so its not a problem if you give yourself enough time. the buses are also very crowded on friday and saturday nights, especially right 2-3am when the last buses come in.. you'll definitely be touching shoulder to shoulder with other wasted freshmen. other than at these peak times, there are plenty of seats available on the buses because they run so frequently.</p>