As we all know, General Room Selection (GRS) is now open. As I read the e-mail that Residential Life (ResLife) sent out a few weeks ago about GRS, I remembered how excited I was when I decided to attend Wesleyan. I also remembered when I got an e-mail from Wesleyan telling me to pick my first-year dorm, and how disappointed I had been that so many of the available halls are entirely made up of doubles. I found this disturbing because I needed a single room due to special circumstances. Now that I have been on campus for two semesters, I have some criticisms of the dorm options available to students with disabilities, and would like to recommend that the University look further into off-campus housing options.
As I browsed the housing options last June, I eventually found the one place I wanted to live in: the substance-free floor, a place where I could be away from deleterious influences (i.e. peer pressure for weed, alcohol, tobacco, etc.). I indicated a high interest for the substance-free floor. A month later, I got my housing assignment. To my dismay, I got a single room on the second floor of the Butterfields, which is not part of the substance-free floor.
Soon, August ended and it was time for move-in and orientation. I was psyched about getting settled and living a life all on my own. However, I was disappointed by the old conditions in my room that made for an uncomfortable living situation. For example, my room was very warm and there was no way to control the heat. I became really sweaty and exhausted, and even ended up falling asleep during some orientation events that day.
Over the next several weeks, I visited new friends who were living in other dorms. I became upset after I found out that Clark and Fauver (both all-doubles) have the nicest facilities in addition to having air conditioning, while the other halls (particularly mine) don’t. But there was nothing I could do. If I wanted to live in a fancy dorm then I would be forced to give up the only perk I got from living in the old hall—my single.
Some of you may be thinking: “Living in an old dorm is not all that bad, is it?” When I went to take a shower one night this semester, I turned on the water and waited over 10 minutes for it to warm up. Unfortunately, the warm water never came out and I had to take a cold shower. The next day, I called Physical Plant and I was told that the showers would not be fixed until the following week. I hung up the phone in disappointment, wondering whether Fauver or Clark had such issues.
But what about those with special circumstances who truly need single rooms? Wesleyan provides housing accommodations for students with documented disabilities who need them. The most common examples include getting a centrally located room, a single room, or having the room physically modified. Unfortunately, the current housing system still leaves these people with very limited (and inferior) options, given that so many rooms for freshmen are doubles. Although Nicholson has single rooms, according to Residential Life’s website, they are mostly for upperclassmen. There are definitely lots of rooms for improvement.
So what options do students have? According to University policy, all undergraduates are required to live on campus for the entire time they are studying at the University. Students who fulfill academic and major requirements may graduate early—but not before spending the required number of semesters studying on campus. However, according to Director of Residential Life Frances Koerting, exemptions from the housing requirement can be granted if a student is over 25 years old, married, has children, or needs accommodations that the University is unable to provide. This year, only 23 undergraduates were given permission to live off-campus. That is less than one percent of the entire student body—not a viable path for those who abhor dorm life.
Therefore, I would like to make some preliminary suggestions about what can be done. First, I recommend converting some of the double rooms in Clark and Fauver into singles. By doing so, the bathroom traffic can be reduced by quite a bit. Those who are desperate to use the bathroom will be happier. Second, I propose making renovations to the Butterfields, where a significant number of single rooms are located.
Last and most importantly, I suggest that students be given the choice as to whether they want to live on or off-campus. After all, every student has a right to choose where they want to live. This will make it much easier to guarantee housing for the students that do want to live on campus, to renovate existing rooms, and to free up rooms to compensate those made into singles. Many other universities allow students to live off-campus for two or more of their undergraduate years, while others do not even require students to live on campus at all.
I would like to conclude by reiterating that off-campus housing is something that they should not rule out. I am not saying that on-campus housing is terrible, but rather, I argue that off-campus housing can be a viable alternative. Each type of housing has its own pros and cons. However, every student should be given the option to decide whether they want to live on or off campus.
Liang is a member of the class of 2014.
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