Erika Jarvis, Features Editor `lt sucks...) have to deal with five instead of one.' roommates Housing & Food addresses lodging issues Some attribute it to Behrend's increasing popularity. Others speculate that a change in the process for contracting housing is to blame. Whatever the reason for it, housing has become a problem at Behrend this year, leaving dozens of students with less than adequate accommodations. Each year the University overbooks students living on campus to compensate for last minute cancellations and no-shows. Given the remarkable predictability of these estimates, move-in day usually occurs without significant complication. However, this year's record low cancellation rates almost l 0 percent lower than expected quickly became the source of chaos as students prepared to arrive on Aug. 29th. In a near-frantic attempt to provide lodging for all of the students promised on-campus residency, the University filled its maximum 52 supplemental housing spaces. They also tripled students in the residence hall study lounges, assigned roommates to the RAs, and housing still was forced to create four additional spaces. Director of Housing of Food Services, Randy Geering, promises that the supplemental spaces are equipped with all of the same amenities as the permanent residence hall rooms. He also assures that students are satisfactorily compensated for the inconvenient situation with gift baskets, free coupons and discounted room and board fees. But the students themselves are not entirely pleased with what they hope will be temporary rooms. As one female resident living in a converted study lounge on the second floor of Niagara Hall said, "It sucks...l have to deal with five roommates instead of one." The furniture that fits snugly into a regular room occupied by only two students is uncomfortably crammed into rooms housing three, four, even six students. Moreover, privacy is an almost unattainable commodity in the crowded quarters. Unfortunately, no gift basket can really make up for this living situation. Not only are many of the rooms overcrowded, but another female student complains that she and her three roommates are the only girls stuck in Perry Hall - an all-male dorm - as a result of the overbooking "We don't even have the basic things," says sophomore Maura Holmes resentfully. "We have two Internet connections and four computers. Our phones don't work. There's only three closets for four girls that doesn't work." Even the resident assistants have to work with the stressful living environments of their residents while they have a roommate of their own. One RA in Niagara however, has no complaints about the room she's staying in or her roommate. She does worry that not having a single room, as is typical for resident assistants, may he affecting her ability to do her job fully. "My room should be a neutral place," she says. "With a roommate, confidentiality is shot." Unfortunately the circumstances affect countless more people. "It really sucks that we can't study in our study lounge," comments Erika Majewski, a first year student living in Niagara Hall. "And I feel bad for the girls living there. They didn't even warn them about the situation at all. They only found out like three days before they got here." But life goes on. A new residence hall, Senat Hall, is being constructed to provide more housing spaces next year. The new resident hall will be home to freshman students only and will require the hiring of five more Resident Assistants. Students are slowly being placed in permanent rooms across campus as students drop out or cancel their housing contract. Those who are still in their "temporary residency" have learned to make the best of the situation at hand. Isn't that what college life is really about after all? 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