Another
year is well underway at Appalachian, and everyone is nestled comfortably
into their new living spaces for the school year, everyone, that
is, with the exception of those lucky students living in Doughton
Hall.
First, some quick background information: No one
is supposed to be living in Doughton Hall this year. The residence
hall was scheduled to be renovated this year, but that will all
have to wait.
Why? Well, the students currently residing in
Doughton Hall are waiting to move to the place they signed up to
live in last year around February.
According to the Department of Housing and Residence Life, 296 students
are currently living in Doughton Hall—296 people who signed
up to live in the Living Learning Center suites. These students
are now seeing an October or December date before they can move
into the hall they originally planned to live in.
Last year these students were told they could no longer live in
Doughton Hall. To soften this blow, the Department of Housing and
Residence Life told the occupants they would be given the option
to live in the wonderful brand-new Living Learning Center suites.
They were led to believe they were getting a better deal—instead
of living on a hall with a community bathroom, you would be living
in a suite situation, with your own sink and everything.
They said the only problem was the Living Learning Center was not
yet complete. But that shouldn’t be a problem; the completion
date was set for before the beginning of the fall semester.
Now here it is, the middle of September and all those people who
chose to sign up to live in the Living Learning Center are in Doughton
Hall instead.
This is a major inconvenience to those students. They were told
one thing and came to back to school to find another situation entirely.
Yes, I do believe Doughton Hall should be renovated. It is time
that several dorms on campus see a facelift, and I realize that
this, like any other construction project (and everyone knows we
have a few here at Appalachian) will cause some inconveniences.
I also believe that moving those Doughton Hall residents from last
year, who wished to remain on campus, into the Living Learning Center
was a good idea. It would have been even better if they actually
moved into the Living Learning Center in August.
For the Department of Housing and Residence Life to tell students
that they will be living in the Living Learning Center in the fall,
but not really know, is just a tad misleading.
I realize that there may have been unforeseen circumstances regarding
construction, weather, etc, but to misjudge the completion date
by almost an entire semester seems a bit much.
Last year, students should have been told the truth about their
future living situation: They could see up to a semester back in
Doughton before they moved to the Living Learning Center.
These 296 students are now stuck in residence hall limbo as they
wait to move their belongings for a second time this year.
I lived in Doughton Hall last year, as did my three current roommates.
We all chose to move off campus on the hunch that the Living Learning
Center situation was not going to work out as the Department of
Housing and Residence Life had planned. We are now happily adjusting
to off-campus, although I think there are some things about on-campus
life that we miss (such as convenience in getting to class). We
had no desire to pick up our things and move twice in one year and
an equal lack of desire to move into the only other dorms left open
(Gardner, Coltrane, other “freshmen” dorms) as juniors.
And of course, we didn’t win any of those cute little lotteries
either (another topic altogether).
Hopefully, Appalachian will learn from this situation and plan a
bit better next time. Housing on this campus is an extremely confusing
process. If students know more about their living situation in advance,
some of this confusion might be taken away.
To those who are still in Doughton, I hope the Living Learning Center
opens soon, and you can begin the process of moving this year…again.
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