Despite Residential Life’s efforts to de-triple rooms and move students out of lounges, freshmen placed in triples at the beginning of the semester have yet to see a change.
In the past few days, however, a new option has become available to tripled students who wish to be de-tripled for the upcoming spring semester.
ResLife has distributed forms detailing how students can request a transfer out of a tripled room — 220 of which remain. According to the forms, students who wish to be de-tripled can apply to do so, and in most cases just one student from each triple will be transferred into a room with a vacancy. However, the remaining two students will most likely be assigned a new, third roommate come spring.
“We’ve made the decision to keep those remaining 220 triples as triples next semester,” Grace Hoefner, associate director of ResLife, said. “The people who currently live in those rooms have been given the option to fill out de-tripling forms if they want to move out of their dorm for the spring semester. If they choose to, then those rooms will be back-filled with new incoming freshmen.”
If students choose not to complete the de-tripling form, it is with the understanding that they will remain tripled for the rest of the semester, Hoefner said. Even if a student does apply to be de-tripled, there is no guarantee that a vacancy will be available.
There have been 30 vacancies since the start of the semester, Hoefner added.
“Whenever we’ve gotten a vacancy, through someone moving off campus or leaving the University, we have de-tripled a room to occupy that vacancy,” she said. “We usually use the room that’s closest to the vacancy to keep people in the same hall.”
Officials do not expected to see any more vacancies this semester, Hoefner said. However, since some students will graduate in December, transfer schools, study abroad or seek off-campus housing for spring, they do expect more vacancies to surface eventually.
Because the living situation is often referred to as a “temporary triple,” many students were under the impression that their situation was going to be changed quickly.
“I thought it was only going to take two or three weeks,” said Liam O’Hehir, a freshman majoring in biology, who was tripled at the beginning of the semester.
O’Hehir is currently tripled with freshmen Farhan Rehman and John Randazzo in Chenango Hall of Newing College.
A letter was also sent to the parents of students in triples with the same de-tripling information form that was distributed to students. Information on the sheet included how many students are left in triples.
According to the spring 2009 housing update and instructions, although many students will be leaving for a variety of reasons during the spring semester, there will still be incoming freshmen to deal with. Any dorms that have vacancies will be used either to house the new freshmen or de-triple a current room once the spring semester arrives.