<p>Lefty1, here’s what happened in brief.</p>
<p>First semester - My daughter freshman year was in a forced triple. The other roommates moved in before she did so she was left with the upper bunk and the window sill for some shelf space.</p>
<p>Second semester - she luckily got out of the forced triple but ended up being friends with some girls that were the target of harassment from other girls in the dorm. This harassment got to the point where two restraining orders were executed, multiple arrests, an off campus threat with weapons, leading to charges filed and one of the girls being suspended for the semester. My daughter was terrified and she failed that semester. She has since expunged her grades for that semester meaning her overall GPA will not suffer but it’s ~$20,000 wasted without the college credit. I won’t even get into the mental anguish and medical bills to deal with that experience.</p>
<p>Third and fourth semester - lived in a quad and everything seemed okay. During the fourth semester, one of her roommates would frequently have male guests over. The frequency of visits is enough of a problem but the real issue is that those males were not even students and were random online invites. Isn’t there some sense of fear for your daughter’s safety in that situation? </p>
<p>Fifth semester, she met new friends and they all planned to live off campus and signed a lease. Subsequently two of the other girls changed their mind and wanted out of the lease. Luckily my daughter was able to get out of that lease (unlike the learning institution she has committed her higher education to). In her panic about where she was going to live at that last minute change, she decided on her own to sign up for dorm housing with a specific roommate. A couple of weeks later, she met a nice girl who was rushing the same sorority she was and they found an available off-campus apartment for rent. She signed that lease. She then tried to get out of her housing agreement and that’s where she found out you only have 48 hours to withdraw from the lease, otherwise your stuck. </p>
<p>I also want to say that I feel like those parents that are always complaining and trying to get something for nothing and that has never been me. I am both ashamed and angered at the same time. Because the dorm would not be the best thing for my daughter personally, mentally, and academically, it is not in her best interest for her to live at the dorms. My daughter appealed for medical reasons including a letter from her doctor (established during her third semester) in the Delaware area to corroborate her request for appeal. Denied! So, there’s another ~$10,000 the school has taken from us for my daughters education. Now I learn that someone has moved into her room as of today.</p>
<p>So, sorry for the sob story. The bottom line is I don’t care if a freshman takes her spot or an upperclassman. There are 100 spots available according to housing. Couldn’t housing establish one or two floors of a dorm for freshman only, reduce the amount of forced triples, release some kids from their contract and provide some reasonable concessions for new and existing students? The process definitely favors the university over their students which I feel is wrong, let alone the fact that the people that are impacted are the ones that are paying tens of thousands (if not $100,000+) of dollars.</p>
<p>There are schools out there, primarily in the New England states where a more flexible housing agreement exists. Yes there are penalties for withdrawing (which we would gladly pay), but they are much more flexible in dealing with the diversity of young adults and their higher education needs. These are not chump schools either. UConn, UMass, USC, URI, UNH to name a few.</p>
<p>CAN ANYONE HELP STOP THIS MADNESS??? What a fricken nightmare this has been and the school seems to have a holier than thou, ivory tower mentality. Completely inflexible. What is their mission here?</p>