After officials announced that incoming Honors Humanities students will be moving from Wicomico Hall to Anne Arundel Hall next fall, several Anne Arundel residents said they are being forced to move out and now must scramble to find housing next year.
Because Wicomico Hall, as well as Carroll and Caroline halls, will be demolished by fall 2014 to make room for Prince Frederick Hall, the Honors College decided to give Honors Humanities students the air-conditioned, carpeted rooms of Anne Arundel Hall. An email sent March 12 by Honors College Assistant Director Dean Hebert – two weeks after the deadline to apply for housing in South Campus Commons and Courtyards apartments – alerted Anne Arundel residents that rising juniors and seniors would not be housed in the building next year.
However, officials from the Honors Humanities program alerted Wicomico Hall students about the change March 2, 10 days before Anne Arundel Hall residents were notified.
About 32 current residents set to live in the dorm next year will need to find new housing, Hebert wrote in an email.
Although Honors College Director Bill Dorland was able to secure students one day to apply to South Campus Commons or Courtyards apartments, students said it was not enough time to figure out other living arrangements.
“I feel that it is a poor alternative,” sophomore management and biology major Alex Duplessie said. “They want to force students to get out without finding a reasonable solution to these problems.”
Duplessie, who had hoped to stay in his room next year, said the email came as a surprise. He said he plans to fight the decision and find a way for students to keep their current rooms.
“There was no previous indication or forewarning,” he said. “I find it really strange that they didn’t inform students.”
Hebert said officials did not mean to slight current residents and instead were trying to ensure Honors Humanities students would be able to continue living together in the future, with better amenities than the aging Wicomico Hall.
“That program has been losing students each year basically due to their housing, and we would like to change that,” Hebert said.
Hebert and Dorland said they regretted the email’s timing. They were focused on presenting the news to students before the March 30 deadline for on-campus housing, Hebert said, and that the pair didn’t realize apartment deadlines had already passed.
“I should have known the deadlines, but I didn’t,” Hebert said. “If we had sent the word out earlier, it would have been better for students.”
Although sophomore computer engineering and math major Eisha Nathan turned in her lease application in February, thus securing her a spot in an apartment, she said she still feels misled by the Honors College.
“We were under the impression that if we wanted to stay, we had first priority.”
Duplessie said the Honors College should take responsibility for the oversight and students should not have to deal with the ramifications.
“It’s a huge failure of responsibility by Resident Life and the Honors College,” he said.
akinnibi@umdbk.com
