Temporary Doubles?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - San Diego
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<p>I'm in Warren College, and recently, I was placed in Harlan Hall RH. Apparently, I have a "temporary doubles", so I have several questions about this arrangement.</p>

<p>1) Where the hell is my desk? There are two wardrobes and no desk. No offense, but I don't think I'm gonna bring enough clothes to make it worth the fact that I don't have a desk. I suppose it would be better to study at the library anyway since there are too many distractions in the dorms, but I'm still kinda frustrated.</p>

<p>2) Are these bed assignments set in stone? My roommate has anxiety attacks and claustrophobia so we're considering either switching beds or sleeping on the floor. RAs aren't gonna bust us for that, are they?</p>

<p>3) I can't believe I have to pay the same price as a regular double room, even though I have no desk. This isn't a question. I'm just kind of "AAARGGHH". I'm thankful I managed to get all the classes I needed though, so I suppose I'm not too livid. </p>

<p>4) What do they mean by "temporary"? Are the room arrangements going to change... or...?</p>

<p>Thanks a lot! If anyone has ever gone through similar housing arrangements, could you share your experience? It would help a lot.</p>

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<p>I was an RA for Warren for the last two years so I might have some insight (non-official insight of course just for the record. If you want official answers contact the Res Life Office).</p>

<ol>
<li><p>There will be a desk for each of you. Where did you hear that there won’t be?</p></li>
<li><p>You can switch beds as long as you both agree to it. You roommate can also sleep on the floor if they really want. There’s no policy against that. I highly advise your roommate to talk to Res Life though to make sure they are aware of his conditions and can do their best to make sure both of you are as comfortable as possible.</p></li>
<li><p>You’ll have a desk. :)</p></li>
<li><p>Good question. I haven’t heard of that before in my 4 years living in Warren. My guess is that they might convert them to triples later on. The double rooms can accommodate triples and some people are probably already in triples. These sorts of things vary year by year though.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>And like I said. Don’t take this as official word. I can be wrong about things too so let me know if you’ve heard anything against what I’ve said.</p>

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<p>On the webpage that displays the room layout, the image is indeed lacking a desk! No idea what that means, but you shouldn’t worry; there is no way they aren’t going to provide a desk.
It is hard to say what this means because UCSD never had to accommodate this many people before so this temporarily thing is kinda new. This is also unofficial information but I read that it is temporary because they are waiting on people to drop their housing contract before the year starts? They have also been sending notices to people since a few months ago asking them to move off campus with extra monetary incentive (It was a REALLY good deal). </p>

<p>And speaking of unfair, have you seen the revelle res halls and compared it to the ERC res halls? yeah life is not fair; especially life at UCSD : p</p>

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<p>Double post update:
Okay…well…
here’s what I found
"okay so first of all the lady on the phone had no idea what I was talking about when I said temporary bedroom, then she transferred me to someone else who said that no there are no desks-- it’s literally a single room where they bunked the beds so they could make up for overcrowding. they put a second wardrobe where a desk would go. if you want to move out, you have to be put on a waiting list or something starting october 3rd. omg so frustrated haha I was all “if there are no desks where am I supposed to study” and she literally said “the floor’s always a good option.”</p>

<p>so uh… yeah. good luck. Seems like their game plan of these temporarily doubles is to make the living conditions so bad that the students would voluntarily move out. At least they would give you back a refund.</p>

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<p>UTC is an option.</p>

<p>IKEA and then send them the bill?</p>

<p>Move everything around including the wardrobe on its side as a long coffee table.</p>

6

<p>Someone on the Warren Facebook group called Warren Res Life and the lady who answered said that “the desks would be in the common room which is open for 24 hrs.”
Not sure if that means the common room that each suite has (I don’t think that space can fit 6 desks… unless they move out the sofa and table?) Or does each residential hall have a large common room that anyone can study in?</p>

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<p>And that my friends is why I qualified my statement with “I could be wrong”! Disregard what I said that no longer applies. This is incredibly surprising to me . Don’t get mad at Res Life though. They have no control over this kind of stuff and are very likely frustrated about it too. It’s really unfortunate to hear that. I’ll be living in the apartments in Warren so I wonder if they’ll make any changes to them too.</p>

<p>@archaic</p>

<p>The common room is referring to the area inside the suite if you heard them correctly. They might be moving desks in there, but probably not 6. The res halls in Warren also have a study lounge on each floor (or that are shared between split floor) that are open 24/7 so that’s another place to study.</p>

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<p>I’m guessing the lady meant people without desks can go to the study lounge to work then. There are six people in my suite who don’t have desks because three of the singles were converted to temporary doubles :&lt;/p>

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<p>^Yeah. I’m really sorry to hear that. I know Res Life must be just very upset about all of this too. This is definitely not what they want and they’re probably getting a lot of concerned calls and are doing their best to make people feel better in any way they can. It’s totally out of their control though. They are at the mercy of Housing and Admissions and those types of people. </p>

<p>I still think living on campus is (can be) a fantastic and very enjoyable opportunity so I don’t want people to get too down. You get to go be in college for the first time as that’s really exciting! And I know the RAs will be doing their best to make the living environment as welcoming as possible to everybody.</p>

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<p>^ you should see the facebook page
it’s a riot over there.
I think they are contemplating gathering a mob to occupy Res Life. </p>

<p>And man I don’t know about warren common area, but you definitely can’t fit six desk and still have space in the argo/blake common. If this is your situation, then for people who are planning to bring desktop computers my advice is…don’t. Nobody on my floor ever lock the door to their suite. And OP mentions that his roommate has claustrophobia? If that’s the case then jamming six desk into the common room is probably a huge hazard for him if it isn’t already a fire hazard. Not to mention about having no privacy. Jeeze.</p>

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<p>I don’t see what occupying Res Life will do lol…nothing’s gonna change the situation unless a substantial amount of freshmen decide to not dorm.</p>

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<p>@DistressStudent</p>

<p>Res Life has nothing to do with what happened. People are being stupid. It’s like complaining to a cashier that the prices in their store are high. They know, and can’t change them.</p>

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<p>SORRY! I took some time to cool down. My roommate was ****ed off about this too, so I thought it would be better to take some time and think things through.</p>

<p>@$KingsElite$:
Thanks for the info HAHAH! Even if in the end, it seems I’m not getting a desk in my room… anyway, you’re totally right. I won’t pin it on Res Life about the situation. As for the bed arrangements, I’ll probably go talk to an RA about it to see if we can better accommodate my roommate. Thanks again! Your posts were A LOT of help!!</p>

<p>@DistressStudent: WOW… the floor, huh… well, I guess I could always do that… augh. Thanks a ton for the info though!! :slight_smile: I’ll try to make the most of this. Hopefully, it’ll go well. Bleugh. </p>

<p>@aunt bea: HAHAHAH!! THANKS FOR YOUR CREATIVITY. I guess if I turn the wardrobe to the side, it can still be a desk AND a wardrobe. HAHAH. I was considering bringing my own desk, but the temporary double doesn’t even look like it has enough space to fit one… uggggh. </p>

<p>@archaic: Ugggh. Really sorry to hear about your suitemates! :frowning: Thanks for the information! Yeah… I don’t think they’d be able to fit 6 desks in the common room. </p>

<p>For future reference to anyone who also has to have a temporary bedroom, Mark Cunningham answered my roommate’s e-mail, saying that the prices for the temporary bedrooms will go down after a quarter, since they have no idea how much more they should reduce the price compared to a regular double. </p>

<p>He also said we may find places to live outside of campus, as well as simply study using the desks in the common room. So those are other alternatives. </p>

<p>He said that after talking it through with our RA, we can also possibly exchange a wardrobe for a desk. If you’re in good cahoots with your roommate, you could always exchange one wardrobe for a desk and share the remaining wardrobe with your roommate, I guess. </p>

<p>Which brings me to my current situation. My roommate, who is an ehh/not-so-close friend of mine, wants to exchange one wardrobe and share everything with me. I don’t really feel comfortable sharing wardrobes with her. Plus, if we only exchange one desk, how are we both going to use it to study…? </p>

<p>On the other hand, I don’t think I’ll have too many clothes at one time, so I guess maybe I shouldn’t keep the wardrobe. I’m not sure how big the wardrobe is though, since I never got to visit the actual dorm rooms when I was at SD. </p>

<p>What do you guys think is worth keeping: the wardrobe or the desk?</p>

14

<p>@Everyone who received a temporary double</p>

<p>Sign this petition.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.change.org/petitions/university-of-california-at-san-diego-lower-the-price-of-the-temporary-double-or-find-more-housing[/url]”>http://www.change.org/petitions/university-of-california-at-san-diego-lower-the-price-of-the-temporary-double-or-find-more-housing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;