Many incoming freshmen were in for a rude awakening this year after finding out they’d be placed in forced triples.
“It is not what I expected,” freshman Heidi Chang said, referring to what she imagined her first year’s college experience would be like. Chang lives in Chenango Hall in Newing College with two other roommates.
Binghamton University has acknowledged the problem and is working on a solution, officials said, despite the fact that Chang said she “hasn’t heard anything yet.”
“We have been de-tripling the rooms since day one,” Grace Hoefner, associate director of Residential Life, said.
At the start of the semester there were 282 forced triples, and now the number has been reduced to 241, Hoefner said. However, there have still been complaints from parents and students about the undesirable living situation.
“Nobody wants it, and it’s not what we want to offer,” Hoefner said.
She added that many people understand the situation, due to the high enrollment the University has taken on.
Chang and one of her roommates, Stefanie Rulli, are coping. So far they don’t have any problems with their room, they said.
“You get used to it,” Rulli, also a freshman, said. “You just have to be considerate.”
Chang said she knows other freshmen who live in triples, and that the students she knows of are getting along with their roommates and don’t mind the situation either.
Rulli and Chang agreed that although they haven’t had any real conflicts, they are rarely alone.
“I am almost always in here with someone else,” Chang said.
The pair laughed when they admitted how much time they spend together. Both girls said that now they are used to a lack of privacy and are not annoyed or frustrated by it.
So far space situations also haven’t posed an issue for these girls. They said they are making it work — two of them share a closet, and another gives up some desk space since there are only two.
After about a month in the room, it doesn’t even seem like the space is limited, “until you go into someone else’s room [a double] and you’re like, wow, this is big,” Rulli said.
BU is compensating tripled students with a reduced rate on room and board. The three students are being billed only for a standard double room — the fees of which are usually split between only two students — so the cost will be somewhat cheaper, but there is no word of any other form of compensation.
According to Hoefner, one reason this was such an issue this year was the large number of students who decided to remain on campus.
BU officials have to wait for rooms to open up, Hoefner said, adding that there will be more movement in January when the fall graduates leave, but there was no word about any current procedures.
When asked if she anticipates this problem to arise next year, Hoefner could not give a certain answer. She said that meetings with enrollment management will be happening soon, but she is unclear at this time as to what the outcome will be.