By the time I started my senior year of high school I had lived in six houses in two different towns (counting two separate stints in one of the houses). Through the moves I was lucky enough to avoid changing schools, other than the natural elementary, middle and high school transitions.
Since transferring to Baker in the fall of 2008, I’ve lived in one apartment and one dorm room.
Scratch that. Make it one apartment and two dorm rooms.
It’s called consolidation.
Earlier in the semester, my roommate and I were told we had two options: stay in our current suite in the Living and Learning Center, and accept two new people to fill the newly-vacant beds left by a December graduate and a student spending spring abroad; or move down the hall into living quarters officially designated to house two bodies, at no extra charge.
A third option, staying in our current suite and compensating the university for the unused beds, is also available. Though it was never presented to us, that alternative would have been out of the question, considering the prices of ol’ BU’s virtually involuntary on-campus housing.
So, with a slight chip on our collective shoulder, we will say goodbye to a suite where we turned the living room into a fort (Childish? Possibly. The greatest idea ever? Without a doubt.), and spent most fall nights staying up entirely too late for no particular reason.
I’d usually describe a situation like this as “ridiculous” or “funny,” but “confusing” seems more appropriate.
Consider the following facts, collected from the area coordinator of the LLC and the apartments:
•Our current suite will likely be empty for the whole spring semester because (drum roll)…
•There is no waiting list for a room in the LLC.
Of course, we’re not the only ones facing consolidation. There are 29 empty spaces in the LLC, in all, and that number will remain the same, pending a sudden spike in demand.
It’s mid-February. Life is unpacked and beds are made (or are at least covered in sheets).
<br/>There are new nametags lining the hallways — and only two on the door to our room. Our names are not pasted up for public viewing at the other end of the hall, covering the entrance to a room that we've hardly ever glanced at, much less felt an urge to occupy.There are new nametags lining the hallways — and only two on the door to our room. Our names are not pasted up for public viewing at the other end of the hall, covering the entrance to a room that we've hardly ever glanced at, much less felt an urge to occupy.
There are new nametags lining the hallways — and only two on the door to our room. Our names are not pasted up for public viewing at the other end of the hall, covering the entrance to a room that we’ve hardly ever glanced at, much less felt an urge to occupy.
A more logical time to consolidate, or at least notify residents of moving matters, would have been over interterm.
“But not everyone’s on campus for interterm!”
But there’s e-mail, and the chance to be environmentally friendly rather than spend money on ink and paper.
It’s also tough to believe that students couldn’t be informed before the end of last semester, since not much seems to have changed on the new-to-the-LLC front since December.
Whatever the reason for consolidation, if there is a clear one, it's the same song.<br/>Same school, new room.Same school, new room.
Same school, new room.