By: Tyler Ziegler

It seems as though someone dropped the ball … hard.

That “someone” seems to be the folks in the Department of Resident Life, and the “ball” was their most recent policy regarding spring break housing, or in my case, the lack thereof. As anyone who resides in North Campus dorms is well aware, we were required to vacate our dorms no later than March 11 by 7 p.m. If we were unable to do that, then spring break housing was made available to us, for a price. While I am sure this policy was fine for the majority of students, there was one key populace that got shafted, and that was the student employees of this university.

Allow me to explain. Upon realizing that I had until Friday evening to leave, I immediately contacted my resident assistant and asked for a temporary extension, 12 hours at the most and five at the minimum. I needed the five hours so I could sleep before my shift. I am a driver for Shuttle-UM and work the dreaded — albeit rather interesting — 12:30 to 4 a.m. shift, and I am routinely asked to stay until 8 a.m. to help cover staffing shortages. In short, after a full day of classes, I work for eight solid hours and I would like to sleep before my shift begins so I can be as safe as possible. As I’m sure you’ve already deduced, my request for a temporary extension was promptly denied, which is rather confusing considering a similar policy was in place when students departed for Thanksgiving break. To make matters even worse, I just so happened to be responsible for my brother’s $3,000 violin and was entrusted with its safe transport back home.

Now, my RA informed me that I could apply for temporary housing, but I wasn’t about to shell out that kind of money for a 12-hour storage unit. All in all, I ended up spending half the night in the break room underneath Regents Drive Garage because that was one of the few buildings that my swipe still had access to. I was lucky that I had even that, but it still made things rather difficult. Moreover, if I wanted to use the restroom, I had to leave my belongings unattended, including a $3,000 violin that didn’t belong to me. All said and done, I am super lucky. I was only required to stay until Saturday morning to fulfill my shift; however, I know some of my peers had to work all the way up until Sunday.

While I fully understand the justification and logic in shutting down the dorms, I feel as though there could have been a little more forethought with regard to the plights of student employees. Allow me to say that, yes, I understand that most student employees were off the campus by Friday anyway, but the fact remains that there were some who were not and were left with a bit of a conundrum. It is a tad irksome that those of us who provide such an integral service to the campus community were left to fend for ourselves. Perhaps next time, Resident Life could provide temporary housing to student employees (free of cost or at a reduced rate) with proof of employment. At the very least, allow resident directors to approve temporary extensions with proof of employment so students aren’t left holding $3,000 violins that aren’t theirs.

Tyler Ziegler is a freshman government and politics major. He can be reached at tziegler@umd.edu.