Housing should consider new home
Campus Times
October 2, 1998
cartoon by Stephanie Lesniak
Moving onto a college campus as a freshman is a stressful event. The
students already have preconceived ideas as to what college life is all
about. Questions run through their heads about whether or not they will
get along with their roommate, survive eating campus food in relation to
home-cooked meals and whether or not they will remember what mom said about
mixing white and colored clothing in one wash.
The last thing on their mind is the number of roommates they will get,
which drawers, closets and desks they will have to share with a roommate
and whether or not they can actually have the opportunity of experiencing
their first year living in campus dormitories.
Living on campus this past month has already been chaotic for many of
the residents. Due to the significant increase in enrollment, the Office
of Housing and Residential Life has really struggled and worked hard to
satisfy students' housing needs. It is safe to say that Housing has also
made some poor decisions which have not only caused overwhelming, overcrowded
and uncomfortable residence halls but created a pretty lengthy waiting list
for people interested in on-campus housing.
Housing could have prevented many of these problems by simply thinking
a little more logically. For example, when the $200 housing deposit deadline
that guarantees on-campus housing for students was set for June 1, the department
needed to turn away any deposits that arrived on June 2. This would allow
them to look reasonably at the number and size of the rooms available. If
they could have honestly said that they had additional space, then that
would give them more reason to continue taking more deposits. However, it
seems that Housing felt that they could put three or four people in rooms
that can barely fit two residents. As if living in a room with absolutely
no privacy is not torture enough, some residents are even sharing desks
and drawers and live in crowded rooms that have no air conditioning.
If Housing even continued to take deposits until the day before move-in
day, then they still could have done something to help the students who
remained on the waiting list just to have the chance of living on campus.
Housing, located in the Oaks Residence Hall, takes up an entire floor --
B-Bottom -- for its offices. That floor could have housed approximately
20 residents, meaning that the waiting list would be closer to diminishing,
and residents would not be living in cramped small rooms without privacy.
One temporary solution would be for housing to move to the former University
Relations building located on C Street, north of Bonita Avenue. The building
is designed to be an office building and currently is left vacant. Oaks
B-bottom could be put to good use if Housing made the move. This may be
a little inconvenient for them, but shouldn't the comfort of the students
come first? After all, the students spend a substantial amount of money
to live in these dorms.
It would not be fair to put the entire blame on Housing, when the admissions
staff and the new students were also a root to the problem. The admissions
staff could have been careful and not made an impression that there were
a large quantity of rooms available on campus. It is understandable that
the University may be money-hungry and does not want to turn any students
away, but if that is the case, then why not invest in building a new residence
hall? This may be a practical long-term solution if enrollment is truly
going to increase.
The students themselves could have helped by turning in their deposits
with enough time to find off-campus housing if necessary. They should not
have expected to be placed in a residence hall without prior notice on move-in
day; they should have simply used common sense.
Poor decision-making skills have been the reason for the discomfort
of the students who have chosen to live on campus and it could have all
been prevented with some simple precautions.
