By Emily Harris
Elm Staff Writer
As if these next few weeks aren’t going to be miserable enough, the stress of finals and everything in between is topped off with another problem I thought had been solved a long time ago. After being crowded into a triple, it seems there is now plenty of space to go around, so much so that I’m essentially being kicked out of my room. The odd thing is there seems to be a lot of people who have been trying to change rooms for most of the semester, but couldn’t find space or situation that made sense.
So if Washington College is still so short on dorms, why am I not allowed to keep mine? Granted, it’s technically a lounge, but that didn’t stop them from squeezing three students in at the beginning of the year. Not only am I being moved somewhere, I’m not allowed to know where until the week before finals, and I have to make the move before winter break, essentially during finals.
The system that slightly confused me at the beginning of the year has now left me completely baffled. And I know I’m not alone in my confused state. Other students actually trying to leave their rooms are still unsure if they will be able to. I guess my question is, why can’t we fix problems as they come up, rather than waiting to solve them all at once during the most stressful time in a student’s semester? Despite my attempts to suggest alternatives to housing, I’ve been told I will not be staying in my dorm, and I’m not allowed to move to another room to guarantee that I can stay in my building.
The Residential Life at WC has a responsibility to the students to make sure that they have a place to live and that are happy there. Perfect happiness is not always achieved because, let’s face it, this is college. Living situations are not always ideal, because this is real life (or something like it) and it makes sense that problems are going to come up.
Again, it comes to the fact that too many new students were let in, and there was no easy or sensible way to fit all of them on campus. I thought things had settled down, but that is clearly not the case. Housing should focus on students who actually want to move, because that makes sense. Why should students who are happy with their living situation have to leave, while those who are unhappy are stuck dealing with roommates or various other problems? They’re the ones that are asking for help, and they should be the first ones to receive it.
In all honesty, this is one of the only serious issues I’ve encountered at WC. Even so, it is an important issue that affects mostly freshman students. The first year of college is an adjustment in itself, and I know other students who believe that dealing with multiple roommates or room changes in one year is not something freshmen want to deal with. Obviously there is reason for confusion and annoyance now, but hopefully housing will be able to redeem itself and deal with all of the room changes in a way that makes sense.