It was just six months ago that Resident Life kicked hundreds of seniors out of on-campus housing and the SGA erected a “Tent City” on McKeldin Mall in protest. Now, it’s juniors who are getting the boot.
As reported today by The Diamondback’s Emily Groves, at least 400 students of next year’s junior class will be left without on-campus beds due to a housing shortage.
Should we get out the tents and sleeping bags? This is the same situation all over again, isn’t it?
Not exactly.
If it’s a question of principle, then yes, we can rightfully be angry. Even with 600 fewer seniors living on the campus, there is still a huge housing shortage. Why weren’t university officials planning ways to deal with increasing admission numbers – as well as an increasing desire among incoming freshmen and rising sophomores to remain on the campus – years ago? The answer is that proper planning completed years ago would have called for hundreds of new beds at a time when university officials weren’t sure they’d be able to fill those beds. University officials are apparently so paranoid about having a dorm room bed without a student paying regular rent to sleep in it, they have preferred to shortchange students with overcrowded high rises to make sure they’re filled.
That’s the really sick thing: To some officials at this university, it’s better to have students nearly crawling over one another in converted dorms and lounges, with a long list of students to replace the ones who get booted, than to have an empty bed. Underclassmen and their parents should be outraged at the administration for their unwillingness to do what other universities in the state have done and just partner with a local developer and build something.
Anything. Haul some double-wide trailers to the golf course if you have to. Tents on McKeldin Mall worked for about a week.
On the brighter side of things, at least the Department of Resident Life forecasted next year’s shortage. In the spring, they gave this year’s seniors all of 45 days’ notice that they wouldn’t be able to move back in. This time around, at least sophomores can start worrying about whether they feel like dealing with the completely unaccommodating management at University View or rent a ramshackle single family home from a shady landlord. Resident Life obviously learned its timing lesson last semester when it waited until the last minute, in April, to break the news to ousted students.
So current sophomores aren’t facing the exact same situation that rising seniors faced last semester. But that doesn’t mean the whole situation isn’t completely unacceptable.
Essentially, the campus is quickly turning into a place where only underclassmen can live – underclassmen who didn’t transfer in or enroll in the spring, that is. Is that the type of campus we want? The answer should be a resounding no.
Students – especially freshmen – need to be aggressive about keeping an eye on how the administration solves this crisis and ensure that whatever is built will suit students and will provide enough space. The city has a part of this too, and in an election year, the Student Government Association needs to demand that university officials use the next two years to build safe, affordable housing.
