<p>Point well taken, bassetmomma. On the other hand, being stuck in a small space with an insufferable stranger can be demoralizing. </p>
<p>My daughter had such an experience her freshman year. Her roommate, whom I would charitably describe as an alcoholic, homophobic, bimbo (“Wow, you actually read books that aren’t assigned for school. I can’t believe what a nerd you are!”), routinely partied until the wee hours, then demanded silence throughout the morning as she slept off her hangover. No amount of conversation, confrontation, intervention, or attempts to switch rooms worked. </p>
<p>It was a very long year. On the other hand, at least she wasn’t paired with the girl in the room next door who was taken by paramedics, unconscious, from the dorm to the ER on a gurney one night, her nose bleeding profusely, following an overdose of cocaine.</p>
<p>not sure if you are referring to me when you say this, “surprised at the reactions by some here,” mom but if you are … i guess that’s ok.</p>
<p>it is not like i am whining about my poor daughter can’t get the perfect room she wants. she wants a full empty four person suite so she can pick and choose the perfect people to live with. and while you’re at it she wants the corner room in the corner of the building. oh, and no loud or stinky boys nearby, please.</p>
<p>you of all people know our situation. she was not able to choose UA until the financials worked out. that didn’t happen until later in the game. all along we had read and been told by different people tht getting honors housing would not be a problem … and maybe it won’t in the end.</p>
<p>but, i do agree that having NO HONORS ROOMS on her pick date was not what i was expecting at all. i expected she would not necessarily get the specific dorm she wanted, but i expected that she would have no trouble finding an honors room. we were on when it opened yesterday and there were hardly any rooms to pick at all. some nice ones (about 30 rooms in RCS - N with 2 - 4 openings) popped up on my screen for a second, but when i clicked something it logged me off and then the rooms were gone. when you reported back from talking with housing, it sounded like there were rooms held back and that more would come available on may 10. so, i am sorry if my expectations were too high or my reaction is unreasonable. : /</p>
<p>sure, maybe it will work out in the end. but what a hassle. i did put down a housing deposit at another school because i knew that freshmen were not guaranteed housing and if i didn’t we would be out of luck. that deposit was fully refundable. i didn’t do it for alabama, because i was led to believe it was not necessary.</p>
<p>I am surprised at the reactions of many on this forum. There are those who now think they need to fear applying to Bama next year, and those who thought that they could pay late and have an easy time picking. The chances of paying late and having much choice - including choosing suitemates - were going to be slim even in better circumstances.</p>
<p>Yes, Mike, I know that you were waiting on some financial issues to be worked out, but I didn’t know that you hadn’t put down a deposit until you mentioned that you didn’t know why you hadn’t done so yet. </p>
<p>I was the one who kept saying that honors housing is not guaranteed. There were some on this board that kept confusing the guarantee of freshman housing with meaning that honors was guaranteed, and it’s not. </p>
<p>Even without any prior history of honors booking this fast, everyone has to have realized that many, many kids (literally thousands) had paid their deposits during the October - February time period, therefore those kids would literally fill up dorms leaving slim pickings for those who paid later. </p>
<p>Yes, I’m surprised that at this point no honors rooms are available. That hasn’t happened before. However, rooms will very likely open up and kids who still want to be in honors will likely get rooms. But, that won’t likely mean that they will get to be with a particular friend.</p>
<p>I will call housing now and see if anything will be done to encourage more kids to move to The Bluff. Hopefully, that will open some rooms. :)</p>
<p>I just don’t want any future families to look at this thread and to think that their child won’t get honors housing by some weird stroke of bad luck. A future family who pays his deposit early will get honors housing and will get a good pick.</p>
<p>I do agree Mike, when we meet with honors college in February they made it seem like all honors students got honors housing if they wanted it. While we were there my son stated he would probably not want honors housing. BUT, the honors college did make it seem like he would be able to get it if he wanted it, even if initially decided on the regular dorms. They said that he could change rooms as often as he wanted until July. I got the impression that housing was easy to get and switching rooms was also not a problem…So, I can see why people would be upset. I feel bad for those who really feel strongly about honors housing and now might have to make other plans.</p>
<p>you may have said that honors housing was not guaranteed, but others had called and been told that it was … so who knows.</p>
<p>and even if we would have deposited somewhat earlier, it would not have been early enough for an early choice … maybe just so enough for the previous pick time, which sounded like a mess, as well.</p>
<p>I just called Bama Housing and left a message for Dr. Ross Bryan - Director of Residential Communities</p>
<p>I mentioned that honors housing is completely full and asked if there are any plans to invite more upper division kids to move to The Bluff so that more honors beds would open up. I also asked if there were any beds/suites that were currently “blocked out” or held back for various reasons and would such rooms be available soon. </p>
<p>I forgot to ask if there are any other plans, such as arranging with another apt complex for upper classmen to move to. </p>
<p>If more people called him with similar or other concerns, maybe he’ll do something to make more rooms open up. </p>
<p>Another person to contact…</p>
<p>David Jones - Phone: 205.348.9364 Fax: 205.348.3481 Email: <a href=“mailto:djones@sa.ua.edu”>djones@sa.ua.edu</a>
Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs &
Executive Director of Housing and Residential Communities</p>
<p>I agree with Malanai, Bassett and Mike. I will also say my son doesn’t want any one from his state to be a roommate because he wants to meet others. The problem with not being in the Honors housing for us is every and I mean every child we spoke with from many other colleges that didn’t go into Honors housing to begin with said it was their ONLY mistake. It seems a lot of the other kids didn’t take studying and their grades as seriously as the Honors kids. They said there were way too many distractions and they couldn’t even study in their rooms, and there were many late nights with parties. I understand if you are going to say this is not the norm, but what if…???</p>
<p>I’m over and out as I’m VERY opinionated about this situation. I do think though that Bama will work it out…I honestly can’t imagine they wouldn’t take care of this issue. They wouldn’t use the housing to entice these Honors kids and then leave them hanging; not the way the TIDE ROLLS…:)</p>
<p>Once again, I sincerely apologize that there are no open honors spaces. I too have had confirmation that all honors freshmen will get honors housing if they want it and as of now, this isn’t the case. I’ll echo the comments to call housing and see what they are doing to fix the situation. I have a hard time seeing UA tripling rooms and such, because we have off-campus housing that can accommodate the extra students. I’m sure many of us upperclassmen are willing to entertain offers to move out of the honors dorms, but they have to be actual offers, not just announcements that the Bluffs or whatever housing arrangements are available.</p>
<p>when we went to capstone scholars, it was made to seem that honors housing wasnt a problem for anyone, nothing about when deposit made etc. i definitely was left with the impression that my child would get honors housing. (not an issue now for us) BUT rightly or wrongly, those honors dorms are playing a role in a childs decision to go to UA. they are incredibly nice and i dont blame anyone for feeling disappointed/upset if now they arent available. I would be!</p>
<p>I remember last year roommates “switching” so they could get a suite together.</p>
<p>Hang in there! It will work out! But honestly after listening to my D who just came home this week your child is going to meet up with lots of friends from all over campus.</p>
<p>Each dorm has its pluses & minuses. And D also prefered to do alot of her study time in the library! These smart kids figure it out!!</p>
<p>As an incoming freshman at UA, I’d like to share my experience with the housing situation.</p>
<p>I decided pretty late to attend Alabama. I did not pay my housing deposit before I decided because after paying application fees for 9 different colleges, my parents did not want to plunk down another fee at a school I had not yet decided to attend. Auburn and Alabama were pretty much the only schools I applied to that provided incentives concerning housing to students who committed early.
(By the way, I know it won’t be much consolation to the parents of students who have not gotten Honors housing, but the housing situation at Auburn is much, much wose that this mini-crisis at Alabama. Not only are Honors students not guaranteed housing, the general freshman class is not guaranteed housing. The new housing development The Village is virtually unattainable unless you pay your deposit the week you get accepted. Out of the 22 students from my high school’s senior class going to Auburn, 19 are living off campus.)</p>
<p>I got an e-mail a few days after May 1st from UA housing saying that I would be able to choose my room May 10th. The e-mail also said that they were expecting to have a surplus of Honors dorms this year. I logged on right as the clock changed to 4:00 and chose my room. I will be living in the North tower (Honors) of Ridgecrest South. This may have had something to do with the fact that I’m a guy. I really think that UA Housing will try to work something out with the Honors College students who do not have an Honors dorm right now. Remember, you can log on until July 2nd (I think) and pick/change your room. This process is far from over and I think that UA will try its best in the end to be sure all Honors College students are in Honors housing.</p>
<p>well, lucky you alabamaguy. there was no such luck for us with girls yesterday. we were also on at 4 of course, and there surely weren’t any rooms in RCS-N. my DD and her friend would have loved to be where you are. even if they ended up in different rooms. that might make a swap easier.</p>
<p>i moved my DD to a different room in riverside west. 4 person room only 3 slots filled … but the fourth was not available for me to pull her friend in, and is still not filled.</p>
<p>sorry its so frustrating mike!! i hate it for you, as i know how hard you have worked to make this do-able!!<br>
its ironic that my son didnt want the honors at his school, and we have fingers crossed they wont figure out that he is supposed to be there until its too late to change it LOL.</p>
<p>Well Aguy2010 was luckier yesterday than we were, no such luck for my S, not only is there no room in the girls honors.<br>
Housing did tell me to keep trying things are always changing. So we’ll keep plugging away.<br>
We did book Paty just in case - he’s just used to working early morning, midnight just depends, seen his light at odd hours. I think he likes the option of power nap and continuing. On the bright side at least Paty is close to library (open 24 hours?) and engineering. Best of luck to all.</p>
<p>Because many parents/students voiced their concerns over the honors housing issue, I chose to contact one of my son’s suite mates, who often works with the administrative types on various campus issues. He had not heard of these problems, but was kind enough to give me permission to post some of his comments. </p>
<p>Apparently, housing problems do not just affect the incoming freshmen, he said.</p>
<p>“A large number of current students were denied on campus housing to make sure there was enough room for everyone.”</p>
<p>He added this, “Alabama does make it clear that the new dorms are only guaranteed for honors students. If there is an issue right now with housing selection, rooms are released in batches throughout the summer to ensure availability.”</p>
<p>He also asked that I continue to keep him in the loop about this, as he will be on campus a good portion of the summer, and will try to help in any way. He said that he regrets that there has been such a hardship placed on students and parents alike, but try to remain patient. He is confident that the issues can be dealt with accordingly. </p>
<p>Now, some may wonder why I would choose to speak with a student about this matter. Well, this is a young man who is concerned for the welfare of students. He has been active on several Alabama committees and organizations. Perhaps a different voice can bring these concerns to the powers that be.</p>