Newsgroups: soc.college From: hau...@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Michael Hauben) Date: 24 Apr 92 16:27:44 GMT Local: Fri, Apr 24 1992 12:27 pm Subject: Questions about University Housing and Roommates. Reply to author | Forward | Print | Individual message | Show original | Report this message | Find messages by this author Hello all, I have a question to pose: During housing selection (as a freshman), I picked into a "walk-through" double in one of the newer dorms on campus. I am a freshman this year, and a sophomore, who I don't know, had already picked into the same room. The flip side of the newness of the dorm is the fact that the rooms are on the smallish side. This makes bunk-beds necessary in order to have any living space. Also this room is a walk-through double only in the sense that there are two parts to the room, as opposed to two singles connected with one common entrance way and a door separating the rooms. In good faith I gave my future roommate a call, and was shocked as to the result. He acted as obnoxious as possible and seemed to want to give me a reason to try to get a change from "my room" (I have a signed contract!) into another room in any fashion possible. He also gave me a BS line on how none of his friends had wanted to live with him, how he doesn't like people in "his space" and how he expected to be in this *double* alone! (And that none of the housing people told him he'd have a roommate. Thus, he was pretending he was unaware of the sophomore wait-list which means that during housing selection every possible space IS filled as there are freshman who go into the summer not knowing where they'll be living in their sophomore year until the summer.) My question now, is this a common predicament? And more seriously, if college housing offices should take the responsibility of dealing with the roommate relations, and have more control in this area. Another less important question for here, is what can I do? The main reason I picked into the dorm is that the computing services is utilizing this dorm for the site of a pilot program for setting students in the dorms up with ethernet connections to the internet, and I feel this is an important project to be part of. The problem I do have is that this person was asking me to find ways to leave "my room." The room is equally his and equally mine as we both have signed room contracts. My feelings are, that if he doesn't like the situation, HE should deal with it himself. Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas? Signed, -Confused ------------------------------------------------------------------- hau...@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu Jennifer Lynn Piatek Apr 24 1992, 1:54 pm Randomly choosing into rooms like that is common everywhere I think. Here at RPI freshman are placed into rooms by housing -- supposedly with roomates they are going to get along with, and rarely with anyone else but a freshman. However, after that you have to go through lottery (freshman can't squat rooms) and that is completely random. Two years ago I went through lottery and ended up in a double with a random person I didn't know (bad number -- another 10 females later I wouldn't be on campus anymore). She called me during finals week (I had no clue how to find out who was living there) and we talked about a few things. One of the things I did ask her was which side of the room she preferred (this room had two sides separated by a closet unit). She said she didn't have a preference. So come August, I moved in and chose one side of the room. Three days later, she calls, says shes coming up and that she'd like the side of the room I was on, and she couldn't understand why I didn't want to move ("Why can't you move all your stuff? I don't see the problem."). I ended up discussing this with the RA and we compromised -- she got that side until January, and then we would change. Since the other side faced the door out, I went out and purchased a shower curtain to hang in front of my side -- something I could open and close when I needed privacy (and it was almost always open). As for anything else, she did alot of things just to annoy me -- making comments about the curtain, bitching about my use of the phone (I have a long distance BF and he used to call me from work for a long time -- not that she ever asked politely to use the phone or didn't use it for long periods of time herself). I usually don't answer call waiting (the system is flaky) but since she bitched about me not doing it, I started to (and then all her friends started hanging up if they heard the call waiting tone at the end of the ring). She used to take showers just when she knew I'd be getting up and then go back to bed (we had own our bathroom). And she'd bitch about things to the RA that I'd never heard about before (like typing on the computer late at night -- it was 10 pm that night). When the time for room changes came about, she announced to me that it wasn't working out and that I should move out. I didn't for the longest time, until one day she announced to me while I was on the phone that she "wanted to use the phone now" (in a whiny tone of voice). I told her I would be off soon (a reasonable answer), and she proceeded to annoy me, pick up her phone and talk to me on it (are you getting off yet?) -- she had a line splitter so she could have her own phone, and eventually she disconencted the line. The next day I went to housing and was lucky enough to find a singe that had opened. The upshot of the long dissertation is that even though you are not at fault, you are not going to be happy and that you are going to end up looking like the bad guy in this case I think (my RA, when I told him I was moving out, expressed regret that he couldn't help me any further -- you can't throw someone out of a room if you have problems with them). I would suggest finding the dorm's resident assistant (I assume you have one) as soon as possible and talking to them about it. Go to housing, too. I can understand why you would want to be in that room, but you may have to change just to keep yourself sane (assholes like that shouldn't get what they want, but don't make yourself miserable just to make him miserable). If housing and the RA can't help you, then start looking for another room -- do it quietly and just leave one day if you can. I hate to say let the bastard win, but unless you have a will of steel and can take lots of shit from him, you will be better off somewhere else.. Good luck! Jen Piatek (pia...@rpi.edu) Theraphosa Leblondi In pia...@aix.rpi.edu (Jennifer Lynn Piatek) writes: > but you may have to change just to keep yourself sane (assholes >like that shouldn't get what they want, but don't make yourself miserable just >to make him miserable). Absolutely. The bottom line is, since you probably didn't like spending those five minutes on the phone with him, Do you really really think you might get used to NINE MONTHS with this asshole? It sucks to let him get away with this so easily, so I would say DEFINITELY give a call to the director of on-campus residences and explain the situation. Hopefully they'll give you a similar room, but even if they put you in a place where you don't get Internet, there's probably computing centers on your campus where you can get it. I think it's much more important to be reasonably content with your living situation. It makes everything else easier and more enjoyable. -- -ulys...@mcl.ucsb.edu undeclared underfunded undergrad Department of Limbo now UC it, now you don't Victoria Bollen I don't know about other places but here at Willamette purposely trying to get your roommate to move out is a serious violation of Res. Life rules. If a person is found to be doing this they can be kicked oof campus themselves. Talk to your R.A. and if s/he won't do anything go to Res. Life, Vicki (survived 4 randomly selected roommates) Bollen ------------------------------------------------------