Room change requests steady in spite of students living in lounges
Although housing is tighter than usual this year due to an unexpectedly large freshman class, the number of students requesting a room change for the spring semester remains about the same.
One hundred and twelve students requested individual changes, 84 students requested group changes and 51 students completed a pull-in request for the spring, said Sara Miller, Syracuse University news spokeswoman, in an e-mail. This number does not vary much from the typical number of students requesting a change in housing plans, she said.
‘Students remain in the rooms made into lounges. However, there will be a larger number of students leaving for the spring semester — through study abroad, graduating or co-op opportunities — to account for vacancies to allow students to move,’ Miller said.
Boland, Booth, Brockway, Day, DellPlain, Flint, Lawrinson, Marion, Sadler and Shaw halls have converted spaces serving as dorm rooms. Students may be moved out of the converted space, but no additional students will be moved in, said Eileen Simmons, director of Housing, Meal Plan and ID Card Services, in an Aug. 31 article in The Daily Orange.
Waitlist for the housing change began Nov. 22, but students will not be moved until January, according to the article.
Although space was tight, the university would not ignore a student’s unhappy living situation, Simmons said.
Students who request to relocate for the spring are placed based on space made available due to cancellations, Miller said. But not all requests can be accommodated, and making a request does not provide any guarantee of a move, she said.
There are plans to change housing within the next two semesters, Miller said. The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry began building its own residence hall, Centennial Hall, in September. With ESF building its own facility, there will be more space available for SU students in the Skyhalls, where some ESF students are currently housed, Miller said.
Other plans to improve housing are in the early stages of discussion, Miller said. More details will be formulated by the start of spring semester, she said.
Alli Streeter, a freshman interior design major, found out she would be living on the third floor of Marion in a lounge converted into a triple two weeks before school began.
‘I like my roommates, unlike other people,’ Streeter said. She said this makes the living situation easier, although she has heard of another triple in her building that is not doing as well.
Streeter did have a complaint about the lack of outlets in the converted lounge space.
Streeter said she enjoys living in a lounge converted into a triple and would choose to live the same way if asked to do it again.
Said Streeter: ‘If I knew that I would like my roommates this much, then yes.’
Published on December 8, 2010 at 12:00 pm
