It is now the time of year to figure out living situations for the following 2006-2007 academic year. Everyone is deciding who their roommates are going to be and which dorm they would like to live in. As a freshman, this was very overwhelming at first. As soon as I thought I got a hold on it, an email was sent out by residential life. There were some changes.

Typically sophomores live in five dorms: Mountainview Hall, Perlroth Hall, Larson Hall, Troup Hall, and Complex Apartments. Complex, which are the smallest and cheapest, house six people per room, followed by Perlroth, Larson and Troup, which consist of eight people per room. Mountainview, being the largest and most expensive, houses ten per room on average.

Tuition is not the only thing being raised for next year, but also the amount of people per room. Starting in the Fall 2006 semester, there will be ten people per room in the Perlroth, Larson, and Troup Halls. It is already a very tight fit with eight. Thus, adding two additional people is going to make the living environment less than desirable.

Certain questions must be raised. Is this safe to have

ten in a room since they are only designed for eight? Will this lead to more alcohol and partying problems since there will be more students in the room? These are only a few of the factors that must be taken into account, but for now we get to pay $10,800 per year to be crammed in a room. Sounds like fun. How can the university justify not only raising room and board but also reducing our living space with no affirmative action being taken to solve this housing crisis?

No one is happy about this change, but what is there that can be done to relieve this housing crisis by the fall? The aura in the freshmen dorms is mutual; no one is pleased about this situation.

One freshman girl said, “We had originally gotten eight girls to live together for next year, now we need two more and it is causing a lot of problems and we all can’t afford to live in Mountainview. It’s hard to find ten people that get along well enough to live together.”

The only solution right now to the problem is to try and live in Mountainview, since these rooms are made for ten people to live in them.

However, there is one downfall – it costs an astounding $11,840 per year to live there.

This is also affecting individuals like myself who originally planned to live in Mountainview with a group of ten girls. There are only 46 rooms available in Mountainview that have the ability to house ten. Thus, if we get a lottery number higher than 46, then we are out of luck and must go to plan B, which is to split up. This situation is an ever-growing problem and it can not be continuously ignored. I’m not saying it is going to be easy to solve this problem, but something needs to be done.

The only way students are going to be able to live comfortably on campus is if there is additional housing built. Even though there has been talk of more dorms being constructed, the future does not look promising. Therefore, there are two options that every freshman must take into account. Either we pay even more money in addition to the tuition increase, or cram. It’s a hard decision but, it is one that must be decided within the next few weeks.