Living space, treatment inadequate for residents

Monday, October 26, 1998

Living space, treatment inadequate for residents

DORMS: Students write letter, petition claiming Housing
Administration handled situation badly

By Michael Weiner

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

For David Miller and his five roommates who live in one of
Rieber Hall’s study lounges, the makeshift living quarters where
they are likely to spend all of fall quarter wouldn’t be so bad
­ if they hadn’t been subjected to what Miller calls "an
obscene amount of lying" by housing officials.

"They just lied to us and gave us the runaround," said Miller, a
first-year mechanical engineering student, and one of over 50
on-campus residents who were placed in study lounges because of
inadequate accommodations in the dorms.

With this year’s freshman class ­ one of the largest in
university history ­ and on-campus housing guaranteed for all
first and second-year students, Housing Administration has been
strapped for space, using four study lounges in each of Sproul,
Rieber and Hedrick Halls and placing a majority of residents in
triple capacity rooms.

Housing officials had originally hoped to avoid using study
lounges this year by placing 51 percent of on-campus residents
(including 70 percent of freshmen) in triples, many of which had
previously been double rooms.

But according to Housing Assignment Manager Frank Montana, those
plans changed when UCLA accepted a substantially larger number of
students on appeal ­ after the housing deadline ­ than in
previous years.

"You know a lot more in September than you do in May when it
comes to firm numbers," Montana said.

Miller and his roommates in the lounge said that although they
don’t like their accommodations, it was the way their room
assignment was handled that really bothers them.

They are in the process of writing a letter to housing officials
which they hope to get signed by every study lounge resident on the
hill.

Miller, one of the students who was admitted on an appeal, said
he didn’t receive his housing notification until the end of the
summer. He estimated that he called the Housing office twice a week
without getting a straight answer about his living arrangements,
for most of the summer.

"I was lied to," he said. "They told me that I wasn’t going to
have to pay anything."

Rodney Wang, one of Miller’s roommates, said that what bothers
him the most is that lounge residents are being charged the same
amount amount as students in double rooms.

"I’d rather have a triple than live in a lounge," said Wang, a
first-year undeclared student.

According to Montana, lounge residents are charged the same rate
as the occupants of doubles because the square footage per person
is similar to double rooms.

All study lounge residents will be moved into double or triple
occupancy rooms by the beginning of winter quarter, Montana said.
Spaces will open up as some students choose to terminate their
housing contracts because of graduation, going abroad or finding
other housing.

The use of the lounges for housing has affected more than just
the students living in them. Dorm residents have been unable to use
occupied lounges for studying and floor programming.

"It just makes planning a little bit harder," said Mason Chuang,
a Rieber Hall program assistant.

And the problems associated with dorm overcrowding may not go
away any time soon. Although the projected partial opening of De
Neve Plaza next fall will add 866 spaces, Montana said the new
housing project may not be the great solution many have hoped
for.

"We’ll gain some spaces in De Neve, but in other cases, we’ll
lose some," Montana said.

This loss may stem from the possible closing of the Courtside
building in Sunset Village for repairs after the new dorm
opens.

De Neve Plaza, which is scheduled to be completely finished by
the fall of 2000, will ultimately house 1,240 students.

But according to Miller, living in a study lounge would be less
of a hassle if housing officials had been more straightforward.

"If they just said, Å’Look, we’re overbooked and this is
what we have to do,’ that would have been acceptable," he
said.CHARLES KUO

(Left to right) Chris Lewis, David Miller, Adi Zarichi (seated),
Rodney Wang and Nathan Wright hold their petitions.

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