Do you have proof that it was "purposeful neglect?"
Marquette was not the original owner of this building. It could very well be that the major structural problems that exist have their origins from before they purchased it. And I also can imagine the Jesuits voluntary turning down expensive repairs to their residence in order to redirect it to the students. As a general rule, I have found Marquette to be a very well-maintained campus in every respect.
There was an article in the Marquette Trib last week which said that Jesuit priests have a not-insignificant amount of influence in where they are assigned. Anything that makes Marquette attractive to a Jesuit (or potential Jesuit) is okay by me.
This is especially true in the academia-side of the Jesuit world. As a graduate student at Loyola Chicago, I was the vice president of my department's graduate student association when we were interviewing candidates for an open tenure-track position. The academic hiring process is very interesting. At least at Loyola, every tenured faculty member got one vote for which candidate to hire. The 40 graduate students got one collective vote on who we hired. As vice president, I got to actually attend the hiring meetings and cast the vote on behalf of the students (the president normally does this but wasn't interested in the spending the time). One of the four candidates was a Jesuit. I was curious on how this worked on his side of things, so I asked some questions about how the Jesuits get placed in academia. Essentially, you have to get permission to go into academia, but this is very common for Jesuits and if you want to pursue it, you are generally given permission, perhaps after a few mission trips or other projects first. Once you have your PhD, you can pursue opportunities at Jesuit institutions (or even non-Jesuit institutions, you do occasionally see Jesuits teaching at non-Jesuit schools). You have wide latitude to apply at different institutions. Of course, your superior could always say no, but generally this doesn't happen.
Jesuit faculty-members are often a win-win, because the salary does not hit the department budget. If you can attract some really good Jesuit scholars to your school, the Jesuit Residence could be seen as an investment, both in real dollar terms but also in being able to attract good scholars to improve the prestige of your school.
And, while Jesuit numbers are certainly going down, there are still going to be Jesuits are Marquette for a long time. They deserve a nice place to live. And having that place will help keep them wanting to come to Marquette.
