Nona Gronert (first-year, Undeclared)

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I have the feeling that you will receive a lot of letters like mine speaking out against Oxy’s present housing situation. However, I am not going to rant and rage against Res Life and the Oxy Administration but rather spell out my concerns and those I have heard from other students in the hopes that this letter will be read by the Administration.

Room draw 2010-2011 demonstrated that Oxy’s housing plan for students needs to be reevaluated; as it stands now, Oxy cannot be a residential community that promotes living and learning in a healthy, supportive environment. Specifically, Oxy’s class year sizes, housing requirements, and housing goals do not seem to work with the current facilities nor serve their intended purpose. This year, as many should already know, my class year size was about 100 students larger than Oxy’s previous class size. This class size combined with more upperclassmen electing to live on campus led to a housing shortage. Res Life had to buy 100 new beds and put 1/3 of the incoming first-years in triples. Many of these triples are in rooms that were intended to be doubles. I lived in one of these “forced” triples in Pauley.

Second semester, due to constraints of living space and roommate schedules, I moved out. One of my roommates reorganized our room at the beginning of second semester and made more floor space. Yet, due to storage constraints, this room did not have enough space for three women. Two closets for three women does not work. My triple did not have enough room to be a healthy and supportive “home away from home.” For this reason, I was very surprised to find out that Oxy had created more triples for non-first-years for the 2010-2011 academic year.

One of Res life’s goals, according to their website, is “Creating a safe and comfortable living environment for all residents.” Triples are the antithesis to this goal. “Three is a crowd” and triples live up to this adage. Non-first-years should not have to live in triples unless they contain enough living and storage space for three people. Triples do not foster the living and learning communities that Oxy touts as one of its advantages for first-year students. I barely spent any time in my room or former res hall because I felt like I was out of place and in the way. With the incoming class of 2014 projected to be as large as that of 2013 and also rumored to have a 4-year on-campus living requirement, Oxy’s present housing capacity simply cannot accommodate this continued increase in student population.

My room draw experience, one very similar to that of many other first-year students, illustrates how Oxy’s hopes for a harmonious residential community are crumbling. My prospective roommate and I have been split up, like many other roommate pairs, and we are each in separate triples in Pauley with people we do not know. Yes, we are on the housing waitlist and are hoping that we can live together next year, but she and I are not guaranteed that option. Also, by the time 200 C’s room draw numbers were reached, mens’ housing was completely full. By the 180 C’s, doubles were not available anymore. If Oxy wants to have a residential campus, the campus needs enough space to house students. Right now enough housing does not exist in order to accommodate increased class year sizes. This is not Res Life’s fault. Rather, the Administration’s goals do not fit with Oxy’s physical plant. Currently, not even all students live on campus and we still do not have enough housing.

One problem that contributes to this is that upperclassmen use Oxy housing as a back-up for their rental leases off-campus and this causes undue stress to those who are supposedly guaranteed housing. I think Res Life needs to establish an alternate housing registration process for these upperclassmen who will most likely live off campus.

Oxy’s Administration’s housing plan and goals for a residential campus need to better forecast the number of students in relation to the number of rooms available. “Forced” triples are not a viable option and larger class year sizes seem questionable when one does not see any other res halls being built. Residential life needs to be supportive of students; we all need a “home away from home” to go back to at the end of the day. Currently, despite assurances from upperclassman that the waitlist will work out, I feel insecure about my “home” at Oxy next year.

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