Freshmen adapt to five in a room, 130 rooms on campus are still in expanded occupancy
As the residents of Larzelere 105 moved into their room, they heard students pass by gawking at the names posted on their door:
Samantha Floen, Samantha Miller, Samantha Legere, Sarah Meyerink and Sarah Donetti have more in common than their names — they are all roommates.
Miller, an Illinois freshman, said while amongst each other the names don’t pose a problem, when people come looking for one of them things get tricky.
“It’s really weird when people call and are like ‘Hey, can I talk to Sam?’” said Legere, an Oscoda freshman. “That’s when things get confusing.”
The girls are just one case of many new students living in expanded occupancy rooms.
They said one of the major drawbacks of a fifth roommate was the extra desk, dresser and bed.
While many living in residence halls can use the center room as a sort of living room, often complete with a futon and television, all five of their desks remain in the center room, which makes Floen, a Royal Oak freshman, feel like she’s in a computer lab.
Still, the girls agreed living with five has gone better than they anticipated.
“I imagine if you had a four person room then moved to this, it would be hard but we had nothing to base it on,” Legere said.
Shaun Holtgreive, associate director of Residence Life, said about 130 rooms across campus are still in expanded occupancy. The office will continue to offer students the option to move out to freed up rooms until that number is zero.
Students are given the option to move out based on the time of their application — the sooner they applied the sooner they will be given the chance to move.
Holtgreive said the resident with the latest application date is the one that moves out. However, if another resident would rather take the spot and both parties agree, that is left open as an option.
Interesting shift
Residents may also choose to stay in an expanded occupancy room as long as all of the people living there agree.
So far, Holtgreive said about 21 groups of roommates have chosen to stay in the expanded occupancy rooms.
“Once they get here and get established, it’s amazing how many perceived problems have not been issues,” Holtgreive said. “The 21 rooms represent about 15 to 18 percent of people who have been offered the chance to move and haven’t. Students don’t mind five people to a room.”
Despite the name confusion and crowded space, when Floen received the call to move out, her roommates wouldn’t hear of it.
She said everyone had to sign a waiver saying they were OK with staying in expanded occupancy; an experience she compared to a custody battle.
“My roommates said I wasn’t allowed to leave,” Floen said. “I’d already made good relationships with people here and if I left I might not get along with the new people.”
