Making Things Fit
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You don't always get in where you fit in. That seems to have been the common theme for residence life officials last fall. Freshmen were the lowest on the totem pole in the placement of on-campus housing and many were placed in any dorm that still had room - even if they were utterly out of place there.
For example, many freshmen not committed to a substance-free lifestyle were placed in the substance-free hall Hopi Lodge, 1440 E Fourth Street. Now officials wonder why so many of the residents are getting kicked out of Hopi Lodge.
I am one of the freshman placed in Hopi Lodge, though I did not choose to live there. Though I am not complaining, for I do not drink or use drugs, I am witness to the many who have been booted out of a dorm for violating a hall philosophy they did not agree with in the first place.
In the past semester and this current one, students caught drinking - even at the first offense - have been forced to leave the hall. Many are reshuffled into halls like Coronado and Babcock where they are forced leave friends and neighbors behind and make new friends in a new hall mid-semester.
Their situation is illustrative of the dangers of misassigning freshmen into halls - a danger all too frequent as most freshmen are not assigned the choice dorms or rooms until returning students have chosen theirs.
Now a policy being proposed by residence life may help future freshmen. The policy would place all freshmen who send in their housing applications before May 1 in residence halls first; then allocate the remaining spaces to returning students. Despite all the controversy sparked by announcement of the idea last week, the idea is a sound one.
Giving freshman priority in deciding where they live during the hall assignment process makes it much likelier they will end up in a hall that is right for them - a critical factor in the first year. Freshmen happy in their residence halls are more likely to get involved in hall activities and being involved in the living environment is very key for a freshman. Getting involved helps freshmen make friends and find that they are not as weird as some say they are. They learn there are many others just like them and they ease into college with much less difficulty. Guaranteeing incoming freshmen a place in a residence hall is also critical as on-campus housing is vital to helping freshmen find their bearings in this large university. Freshmen who live off campus are in greater danger of losing touch with the campus and campus activities and services.
Just as important, the proposed policy may spare some freshmen from getting booted out of halls that are not good fits for them, sparing many from having to find new - and sometimes off-campus - housing.
The proposed policy is facing a lot of controversy from many within residence halls now and I doubt it will be enacted in the near future. Especially as students soon to be returning students are here to vociferously voice their opinion while next year's freshmen are still figuring out which college they will attend right now.
But I believe the policy is needed and residence life officials shouldn't be met with the protest they are encountering. After all, Residence Life officials are only doing their jobs. They are making sure that all students develop properly while at the university. And whether most upperclassmen believe it or not, freshman are students at the university as well.
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