Down With the Housing System

Every spring semester the chaotic time of housing registration rolls around on the University of the Cumberlands campus. The first come, first serve policy and ridiculously long lines cause upheaval for students. The turmoil caused by this event is something that should not exist. With a frustrated student population, a change is needed for the housing system at the University of the Cumberlands.

Most of the school’s students live on campus. For three years every student has to deal with the hassles of getting a room for the next year. The current housing policy that the college has now basically says whoever gets in line first, gets the best room.

Class attendance is down during housing registration. The students who are able to skip classes or really could care less about classes are the ones that get the best room

According to Dr. Margaret Combs, chair of Hutton School of Business, “There are students who miss classes because they are trying to secure rooms for the coming year.”

Skipping classes is highly discouraged on the campus, yet because of the current housing system, students almost have no other option. Students do have a preference on dorms and worry whether they are going to get in a dorm that they actually want to live in. With that worry in the back of their minds the decision to skip classes is reinforced.  

Not only is attendance affected but there is complete chaos in the Cybernet Café. For many students that is the only place they eat lunch because of the time their classes are finished for the day. When students are trying to eat lunch and find somewhere to sit, there are other students trying to register for housing. All this traffic causes the Cybernet Café to become a madhouse.

Once students, especially freshman who are registering for housing for the first time, get over the shock of the mess, they then realize that they will have to wait in a line that could take hours to clear out.

Amber McDaniel, a sophomore majoring in religion, said, “I got up at 4 a.m. with my friends to go stand in line even thought the doors didn’t open until 7 a.m. I really wanted to live in Harth Hall and I didn’t want to take the chance of not getting in. Everyone knows how bad the lines are.”

Another issue that happens when housing starts is that nothing gets accomplished in the student services office. Everything else has to be put on hold for the rest of the week. Students are constantly flooding in and out of the office trying to reserve rooms.

Kyle Stygler, a junior majoring in psychology, said, “I had to meet with Ms. Carter and they made me wait until the next week. When I asked why, their response was that she was just too busy and had too much to do.” 

Student services has been asked many times about changing the system, but the response that is always given is that there really is not a better way to do things. There are lots of students that have to register for housing and it is a very overwhelming task, but there are solutions to the problems.

In the current system, all returning seniors and rising seniors register on the same day. This is the same with every class level. This causes huge crowds. One solution is sorting the students by credit hours rather than by status. For example, students that have 113 hours or more would be able to register first. Then, students with 97-112 hours could register later in the day. This system would continue with every class level.

A solution that solves the issue of students skipping class is moving the registration times to later in the day. For example, registration could start at 5 p.m. instead of 10 a.m. This would prevent students from missing class.

Some may ask the question why the housing registration form is not put online for students to fill out. This is another solution that could cut down on traffic and wait time for students. The school is allowing incoming freshman to register for housing online, but hesitate to let students already on campus do so because they are worried about network capacity. This makes no sense when students already register for classes online, so this is just another excuse by the administration.

The housing system at the University of the Cumberlands does need to change from its first come, first serve policy and the long lines that accompany it. By implementing even simple solutions, big changes could happen.

When will Cumberlands make the changes that could turn the system into an easy ride for everyone involved?