Students can affect housing policies

Jessica Gentile Asst. Opinions Editor

If you ask students around campus about their thoughts on the Office of Residential Life, chances are that you will receive a negative reaction. Students’ perceptions of ResLife have been adversely affected by complicated housing forms and ever-changing room draw policies. Between the shortage of senior housing, recent health issues of mold in two of the THs and ever-growing complaints regarding misplacement of students on wellness halls, student grievances seem more commonplace than ever. And while there is much validity behind these criticisms, there is also much we can do to bring about change within the policies that directly affect where and how we live.

As students, we often fail to recognize the complexities involved with bringing about new policies and more importantly, fail to recognize how we can influence such changes. The Office of Residential Life is more willing to take student input into consideration than one might expect.

Our complaints are only valid if channeled into an appropriate outlet. Rather than mindlessly complaining to your neighbor across the hall about the loud music blasting from upstairs, or the weird odor in the kitchenette, make a productive suggestion to ResLife. And, contrary to popular opinion, ResLife is more eager then ever to listen to our housing horror stories. The Office’s open door policy can ensure that all student suggestions and complaints are heard. Student’s accessibility to ResLife is a valuable resource and guarantees that anyone can let their opinion be known, just by stopping by their offices or sending out an email.

Now, more than ever, The Office of Residential Life highly values student input and suggestions that would help further improve the way housing and room draw decisions are made. ResLife is currently in the process of conducting focus groups and researching ways of improving housing policies. These new policies, however, will only be beneficial to the student body if we make the effort to contribute to their development.

According to Associate Dean of Students and Director of Residential Life Faith Nichols, “There will be substantial changes and student input is definitely appreciated. You just can’t do it in a vacuum, especially when it affects peoples’ housing.”

By January a new proposal regarding freshmen room selection and upper-classman room draw is set to be announced. While specifications of upcoming changes have not yet been revealed to the general Vassar population, one of the new policies that is being taken into consideration includes notifying freshman of the wellness status of their hallway over the summer, prior to their arrival at Vassar.

Yet in order to prevent such past mistakes, such as omitting some marked preferences on housing forms, such as wellness hall requests and specific dorm selection, suggestions from individuals who have been unsatisfied with ResLife’s past decisions are most crucial to helping to construct new policies. Student advice on how to reconstruct and clarify questions asked on freshman housing forms would be specifically appreciated.

Students also need to realize that ResLife does sympathize with students frustrations and realizes some of the inadequacies of its current practices. According to Nichols, “ResLife has been so focused on physical plans [Jewett, THs] so there may be quality of life issues that need to be addressed.”
Students should keep in mind that since major renovation projects are now complete, it will be considerably simpler for ResLife to focus on issues that impact student’s well-being while living on-campus. Significant concerns such as noise complaints and student requests to be placed in wellness hallways will be more effectively focused on in the upcoming future.

When asked about the challenges ResLife is facing, Nichols said “It’s been a learning experience. I hope [students] see us as responsive.” And while the responsiveness of an oft-criticized department can certainly be improved, we also need to play more of an active role in the shaping of policies that affect the places we choose to live.