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This semester at the University of Maine, a student housing shortage has left some students living in a variety of unconventional quarters. For the past week, these students have been staying in study lounges and hotels, and even rooming with Resident Assistants.
A number of first-year students were assigned to temporarily room with RAs. Chad Mullin, a fourth-year public administ ration major, was one of the RAs who was assigned a first-year roommate. Mullin said that he was informed of the arrangement less than two weeks before he was to move into Somerset Hall.
“It’s a little bit stressful,” Mullin said of having a roommate. “It’s misfortunate that they have to have an RA roommate.”
John York was one of the first-year students who was assigned an RA roommate. As with Mullin, York was told by the university two weeks before moving in that he was going to be rooming with an RA in Gannett Hall.
“I was a little nervous, it’s a little intimidating being a first-year student,” York said. “I felt like I was kind of moving in on his space.”
Saturday morning York was given a permanent room assignment with a roommate in the same hall.
“It worked out and everything was fine,” York said.
According to Andrew Matthews, director of housing, the housing shortage was due to a combination of a very large incoming first-year class and fewer housing cancellations from upperclassmen.
“Upperclassmen are given first dibs,” Matthews said. “In recent years, we had about 500 students cancel. The first weekend in July, we realized we weren’t getting as many cancellations.”
By mid-summer, only about 200 upperclassmen had canceled their housing plans, leaving a “300-student bulge” to be dealt with, according to Matthews. By the beginning of August, a few lounge spaces were converted to living spaces, and 100 more students canceled their housing plans, but there was still not enough room to accommodate all the incoming students.
“We were negotiating to find every bed that we could,” Matthews said.
Many RAs are assigned to double-singles, or rooms that can accommodate two beds. Because of this, the university “saw 91 beds,” Matthews said. According to Matthews, assigning first-year roommates to RAs was a last resort.
“The RAs have been phenomenal about it, they’ve been troopers,” Barbara Smith, director of Residence Life and Programs said. “They’ve been very welcoming to these new students.”
According to Smith, the increase of on-campus students has decreased the housing flexibility that the university has had in previous years.
“You can’t just move down the hall when you have a fight with your roommate,” Smith said. “There’s just not as many options.”
A handful of students are staying at the University Inn in Orono, which is offering double-occupancy rooms at a rate of $220 per week, which translates into $110 per week for each student. The Milford Motel on the River also is offering temporary housing to students, Matthews said.
The few students who are staying temporarily in lounges are the first priority to be cleared out due to fire safety concerns, according to Matthews. The second priority is freeing up the RA rooms.
The university expects to have the housing situation fixed as soon as possible, but it is not sure when exactly that will be.
“Our highest priority is to get people into a permanent space,” Smith said.
“It’s been a very complicated process,” Matthews said. “Hopefully it will be cleared up in a few weeks.”
Matthews said the university expects the completion of the new Doris Twitchell Allen Village 2 will help ease the strain on campus housing. It is scheduled to be completed in November and will house about 200 students.
Matthews said that he urges students to register for housing as soon as possible. Do this, he said, and “you should have no problems.”
