While most people in my class are looking forward to the freedom of senior year, I’m left sullen over the fact that I am stuck on campus like a prisoner.
The whole Off-Campus Boarder (OCB) lottery debacle has given Residence Life a bad reputation, and the way they have handled their angered students hasn’t helped them one bit.
After being shot down in the lottery, I immediately applied for commuter status, which was my only other chance to get off this campus my senior year. Two months have passed by, and I’ve received no response.
Where is the decency in that? If you know that I’m fighting for a hopeless cause, just come right out and tell me; spare me the time and anxiety.
When it comes to Fairfield’s living arrangements, living at the beach is truly its greatest selling point. Dormitories like Jogues and Regis feel like overcrowded project homes. The apartment complex is like a creepy hotel that no one wants to stay at.
The townhouses really are your best option, but even they have their problems. The locked basements really take any notion of freedom away from the residents. And while living in your own home may come off as a sweet deal at first, you soon learn that townhouse RAs are like nagging neighbors who like to continuously call in noise complaints.
These remarks are only relevant, of course, if you are one of the lucky juniors who managed to snag a townhouse. Two hundred students from the class of rising juniors will be thrown to the other side of campus in the Kostka/Claver village next year.
It has become common knowledge among the student body that there is a serious housing problem at Fairfield University. Freshmen are stuck in triples, juniors are thrown in “castle” Claver and seniors are denied the ability to live off campus.
Living off campus brings more to the table than just the sense of freedom. It is also more flattering to your wallet. Talk to the right landlord and get the right amount of housemates, and you’ll find yourself saving a ton of money.
Is this the reason the University is so afraid of letting go of that leash? Is it possible they are putting students through this misery just so they can suck as much money out of them as possible? It sure sounds like a convincing theory.
It seems, though, instead of eliminating items from this laundry list of problems, the administration just keeps adding on.
If they are piling students up in triples due to the lack of space on the campus, wouldn’t releasing more students off campus be an ideal solution?
I guess not, especially in light of the campus childcare facility in the works for children of faculty members. Some may conclude the administration is willing to spend their money on anything but new housing projects.
While I, along with the other hundred students denied off-campus status, have come to the realization that we cannot win this battle, we have to keep in mind that things can be worse.
Some schools, such as Vanderbilt University, are beginning to enforce new rules that state undergraduate students are required to live on campus all four years.
At least we have the option of an apartment or a townhouse, which both are pretty sweet living arrangements.
Fairfield University is one of the few schools that guarantees four years of housing. Prospective students looking at the school see this as a serious selling point, while current students see this as a burden.
Little do these incoming students realize that the beach is one of the main highlights of the Fairfield experience – being given the thumbs down on off-campus approval will be a serious buzz kill.
I think it’s safe to say the University is more concerned with its reputation with the town than its reputation with the students.
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