 "Photo: Ayelet Daniel")
When freshmen Kate Arcidiacono and Naomi Rosenhaus arrived to campus on freshmen move-in day, they opened the door to their Dickinson room only to find a three-room furnished apartment instead of the stereotypically cramped quarters offered for freshmen.
Arcidiacono and Rosenhaus share one of two apartment-style dorms in Dickinson. They have their own bathroom, a kitchen with a microwave and refrigerator, a separate bedroom and space for a couch and a study area.
Arcidiacono said there is only one other apartment-style dorm in Dickinson, which is kept for the hall directors. Resident assistants do not live in the apartment-style rooms, and instead live in small rooms because they have to live amongst the freshman students, she said.
Arcidiacono and Rosenhaus said they do not know why they were chosen to be put in the apartment.
“When I moved in my dad thought one of my roommates had a disability,” Rosenhaus said.
None of the students living in the apartment have a disability, which may account for a modified room, or asked for the apartment, and they do not pay extra money for their living arrangement.
Linda Carey, director of Student Housing Assignment Services, said the apartment-style rooms were originally built for staff, but now freshman students are placed in the large rooms as well.
“If they are not filled for staff we can use them for students rather than leave them empty,” she said.
The freshman students living in apartments were chosen at random by Housing Assignment Services. Upperclassmen students may also live in the apartments, but they must fill out an application for the room, Carey said. Freshmen students pay the same amount for an apartment as they would an 11 foot by 11.7 foot room. Upperclassmen students, on the other hand, are charged extra for the upgrade because they have a choice in where they live, she said.
Before students occupied the empty apartments, the university also offered the rooms to guests. However, visiting professors did not enjoy sharing a floor with freshmen students, Carey said.
Arcidiacono and Rosenhaus said their apartment was used as storage space prior to male students living in the apartment at one time. Arcidiacono said Housing Assignment Services stopped male students from occupying the apartment because they destroyed it.
“It was like a mini frat house,” she said.
Carey stated in an e-mail message that there was some damage done to the apartments by male residents, and, since then, only female residents have been assigned to live there. No damage has been reported in the apartments since being assigned to strictly female students.
Arcidiacono and Rosenhaus said they enjoy living in their apartment in Dickinson and especially enjoy the amount of room they have to live in.
“If one of us wants to do something by ourselves we can go in the other room,” Arcidiacono said.
Rosenhaus said students in the regular-sized rooms do not have the benefit of personal space. She said the small rooms in Dickinson affect how some of the students study. She said one of her friends goes to the library to study while her roommate studies in the small room.
“They can’t work in a room together because they get too distracted,” Rosenhaus said.
Arcidiacono said when she first moved in to Dickinson the other students were jealous of her apartment. However, now many students come to her apartment to visit, she said. Even though the students no longer resent her apartment, Arcidiacono said some would still prefer the opportunity to lie on a couch while watching television.
She said when she leaves Dickinson she will move into an apartment because she doesn’t want to give up the benefits.
“I can’t imagine living in a dorm after here,” Arcidiacono said.
Rosenhaus agrees that living in the apartment has made it easier to live away from home.
“We don’t call it our dorm,” she said. “We call it our house.”
Kristen Latch, a freshman living in a regular Dickinson room said even though her room is small, she has learned how to live in it effectively.
“The day I walked in, I was shocked,” Latch said. “But now I’ve gotten used to it.”
Latch said while she is good friends with her roommate, other students don’t get along because they don’t have their own space. She said one student in Dickinson even moved out.
Latch said sometimes the lack of space can be worked with.
“I think it’s the students’ own fault,” she said. “My roommate and I keep our room clean.”
Latch said even though she is content with her room, she misses having a kitchen. She said her diet has suffered because she doesn’t have kitchen amenities.
“You always have pre-packaged food,” Latch said.
Carey said students may be placed in triples in small rooms, or are one of the lucky few to be placed in an apartment due to growth of incoming students. She said the university has always had triples and has tried new ways to accommodate students. One year Housing used the Dickinson lounges as rooms.
“We put curtains around the closures and put beds in the lounges,” she said.
Carey said at first students did not like living in the lounges because there were no windows. However, Carey said the students grew accustomed to the large amount of space. She said the rooms were eventually taken out of the lounges because they were an inconvenience.
“It was not conducive to the people in the building,” she said.
Carey said the university has no plans of placing new buildings on campus. She said at this point the university is in the process of determining what is going to happen with east and west campus.
“If we have a large waiting list and we cannot accommodate then we would consider rebuilding,” Carey said.
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