STUDENT GIVES HIS SIDE ON HOUSING

I have noticed a deep injustice currently in progress at Southeast Missouri State University. The university has enrolled a mass amount of new freshmen for the 2001-02 school year. I know this doesn't exactly sound like a problem, but by enrolling such a large number of first-year students, the university is pushing upperclassmen off campus.

The Office of Residence Life says on its Web page that "returning students choose their rooms on campus first, and Residence Life places new students in the remaining spaces and in the spaces we reserve for new students."

What it boils down to is that the Office of Residence Life has gone against its policies, procedures and word, causing some of us upperclassmen to move off campus. I didn't wish to move off campus, because my scholarships and grants cover my on-campus housing expenses.

However, as I went to sign up for my housing next year, I found that all of the Towers Complex, including upperclassmen housing in North and West, was filled to capacity. If this didn't outrage me enough, I talked with such officials as Jim Settle, director of residence life, and got nothing but question-dodging and indirect answers.

After sitting through a meeting on how to sign up for housing, I listened to Settle tell us to first sign our housing contracts, then choose our rooms for next year. My problem with this was the university wanted me to sign a contract I couldn't legally get out of, then pick through the rooms left on campus and get stuck with what the freshmen and sophomores didn't want.

Funny. I thought I was supposed to have first pick on housing and not be left with the scraps.

After one of the recent housing picks, Beth Lewis of the Capaha Arrow interviewed Settle. She asked him many questions concerning the doubts and fears many of the students were having. Settle discussed why the university reversed the housing process this year.

Settle said: "It really boils down to one thing: our basic philosophical commitment to house first- and second-year students. We know, because we have data nationally and at Southeast, and we believe that first- and second-year students who live on campus do better when they live on campus."

I know that first-year students are just as important to the university as the rest of us upperclassmen, but this completely reverses the university's policy on housing. And it sounds like the university is more worried and concerned about new students than those of us who have been here a couple of years.

Settle was asked if there were any spaces still available in Towers. He said there were.

My roommate and I were the first to sign up for housing the next day, and there wasn't a single room left in Towers. Another friend was supposed to be housed on the honors floor, and he was told there weren't even any rooms open there.

In my opinion, I believe the university is favoring freshmen and transfer students over those of us who have been here at least a year. When Settle was asked if the university didn't want juniors and seniors to live on campus, he said, "That's not correct. That's not right."

I don't expect the Southeast Missourian to correct this problem, but I do want the newspaper that the citizens of Cape Girardeau turn to for news to know a few things.

Many of the upperclassmen are very perturbed with the university for changing the housing policy, causing me and many others to move off campus.

If the university wants me to take my money elsewhere, then I will as far as housing goes.

As for my senior year, I will evaluate whether or not to give this university any of my money, even where tuition is concerned.

I hope you understand this is not just my own opinion, but also the opinion of many of my fellow students.

Paul Tiffany is a sophomore at Southeast Missouri State University.