Bunking Beds

By Claire Byun & Jonathan McFadden

byunc@thejohnsonian.com
mcfaddenj@thejohnsonian.com

Late freshman, transfer housing applicants live 3 to a room in Richardson, Lee Wicker 

Living with two other roommates is not always the best situation, but transfer student Shane Hacker does not seem to mind the cramped space. “As far as living conditions, it’s not too bad,” Hacker said. “I’m not really bothered by it- I was just pleased the air conditioning worked.” Photo by Kathleen Brown • brownk@thejohnsonian.comWhen Nigel Angevine walked into what was supposed to be his first dorm room in college, he was surprised to find three beds instead of the usual two in his predominantly male residence hall Richardson.

Two of the beds were bunked, three miniature drawers acting as dressers were nestled into the corners of the room and the micro-fridge was missing.

“How are three people supposed to live comfortably in this type of area?” Angevine said he asked himself.    

Angevine, a freshman music education major, was one of 12 freshmen and transfer students who moved into a Winthrop University residence hall on Aug. 20 and found themselves in an atypical living situation.

 Rebecca Masters, assistant to the president for public affairs, confirmed that the basement of Lee Wicker Hall, as well as two study rooms in Richardson, are being used for temporary housing.

“The number of rooms with three people temporarily is only four, so only 12 students out of 2,100-plus resident students have been briefly impacted at all,” Masters said.

Masters said that the students who were living in temporary housing were paying the same amount for room and board as other students. If their stay in temporary housing had been extended, appropriate adjustments would have been made to their room and board fees.

“Winthrop anticipates some students may be in this situation for a week or so,” Masters said, “and then they will be moved into the spaces of students who had reserved housing space, but whose plans changed and they did not come to school.”

Still, Angevine and the other 11 students in a similar situation had to temporarily adjust to cluttered space and a lack of amenities.

“We really don’t have a closet—the only thing we have is like the small safe box or whatever and that barely works half the time,” Angevine said.

Housing a ‘limited commodity’

Freshman music education major Nigel Angevine arrived at Winthrop to find three beds in a study room in Richardson Hall. One of his three roommates never showed up, but Angevine and his other roommate do not have a microwave or fridge. Photo by Kathleen Brown • brownk@thejohnsonian.comDirector for Residence Life Cynthia Cassens said a majority of the students placed in temporary housing were late applicants, meaning they applied in either late July or early August.

Masters said Winthrop tries to warn students not to procrastinate when submitting housing applications.

“Housing is like any other limited commodity: those who act soonest will have better options than those who don’t,” she said.

Masters said students were informed that they would be placed in temporary housing via a letter sent by Michell Jaworski, assistant director of residence life.

In the letter, students were told they would be placed on a “waiting list” and moved out of temporary space as regular housing space became available.

According to this letter, Residence Life believes that most students will receive permanent housing by October 1.

Some change, some stability

Masters said that in light of high female enrollment, which is a national trend, and Phelps Hall being closed down this year, changes in residence hall space are necessary.

Such changes include female students now occupying the fourth and fifth floors of Richardson Hall, which was once the only all-male residence hall on campus.

To ensure the safety of these female students, the hall bathroom doors have been outfitted with combination locks; only the residents on those floors have the combination.

Even after the housing misplacement, Winthrop has no plans to change its two year on-campus living requirement, Masters said.

“Choosing Winthrop is by definition choosing a school for which on-campus residency for two years is part of the program,” Masters said.

The ‘shakeout period’

Winthrop offered students the chance to change their living arrangements when other rooms on campus became available. Masters said students went to see what spaces were available on Friday, Aug. 27, in what she termed the ‘shakeout period.’

Numbers were dispersed to students that same day, beginning at 8 a.m. A student’s number determined their place in the line of those waiting to change rooms.

Students living in temporary housing were given first priority.

Masters said all “third” students were moved out by 5 p.m. Tuesday, but some are still in the temporary rooms. Because students moved out of the study rooms, Masters said those rooms will become study rooms again.

Life in the ‘Dungeon’

Like Angevine, freshman theatre education major Sean Rodriguez wound up in a room designed to house three students. Instead of a study room, he and his roommates found themselves in Lee Wicker’s basement.

Rodriguez said he never received an original housing agreement like most students, who received theirs in July.

By August, he said he and his mother got tired of waiting and wondering and found the housing agreement online. Rodriguez signed the paper and, a few days later, received a letter stating that he would have two roommates in temporary housing.

“Well, I’m not bringing the T.V.,” Rodriguez said when he first found out about the two other students who would be joining him in the basement.

Once the realization hit, Rodriguez began trying to figure out what he was going to do with all the belongings he prepared to bring with him to Winthrop. His mother didn’t necessarily make things better.

“On move-in day, she took out five crates and two bags of clothes,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez was the last to arrive to the room and found that the top bunk was ready for him to claim.

Also waiting was the fire alarm above the bed, along with the sprinkler system.

“So my head was resting right where the fire alarm was, so in the event there was a fire my ear drums would burst and the water would have gone on me because the spray thing was right over me,” Rodriguez said.

There also wasn’t adequate closet space. The three new students were provided with a shower curtain, but no rod to hang it on.

Fortunately for them, they had no suitemates.

“We would just lock the door and take turns,” Rodriguez said.

Before being in the room for an entire week, one of the roommates moved out, leaving Rodriguez with only one. Now, Rodriguez said that he and his roommate, transfer student Shane Hacker, have gotten used to the room in the basement that they call “the dungeon.”

Not only that, Rodriguez and Hacker have decided they don’t want to go through the hassle of moving out.

“Things are just easier down here,” Rodriguez said, “All my stuff is there.”

While not upset about the situation, Hacker says he’s received little information from Residence Life concerning his place on the waiting list.

“I don’t feel as though they are putting information out as to what’s actually happening. Where I’m going, when I’m moving, I’ve never actually heard,” Hacker said.

Neither Rodriguez nor his roommate are looking forward to having to move out, get a new roommate and undergo the adjustment process all over again.

Rodriguez said both of them are sure  they won’t be roommates after the ‘shakeout period’ occurs on Aug. 27

Rodriguez said the post-shakeout period is “going to be like moving day, part two.”

The aftermath
 
Moving day part two came for Shane Hacker.

On Aug. 31, the transfer student packed his bags and was sent to a new home in Thomson. There, he would have more space but also a new roommate — something neither he nor Rodriguez wanted.

Rodriguez, now living in a lonely basement, said he hasn’t heard anything about when he’ll be moving out.