<p>MommaJ, blaming the person being bullied is wrong. She was the last person to be blamed. Ahead of her would be the first residents, then the RA, then the RD (for not training RAs).</p>
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I’d say they’re doing what everyone else does. At UCLA, for example, lately they’ve guaranteed housing for 3 years. They’ve been building more dorms, but for years now they’ve also put frosh into triples in order to get everyone to fit in the available housing. The exact same rooms that used to house 2 students back in the day. Many other schools also put kids into triples in order to house everyone with the resources they have on campus.</p>
<p>What do they do with their clothes in a double made into a triple? I could understand if the college said OK, we’ll be moving one out in 2 weeks you’ll have to live out of your suitcase 'til then. I don’t have a problem if they can accomodate all three or four or six with a bed, desk and closet or something to hang clothes in, but I know that I would be sitting in the head of housing’s office calmly but ferventing negotiating even if I had to fly there if they didn’t have minimal accomodations. Heavens, move some upperclass kids off campus. That happened an awful lot with us “first baby boomers.” To me the situation of depriving one of the roomed kids with basics smacks of poor planning and whole lot of squeezing a nickle. Kids don’t need wall to wall carpet, they don’t need room for lounge chairs, a sofa, and a 60" plasma, they just need a bed, a desk and somewhere to put their clothes and that certainly isn’t asking too much and if they can cram all that into one room for 3 kids all is fine. If not, then they should not be doing it in my opinion.</p>
<p>What surprises me isn’t that it’s a tripled double, I think that’s happening at lots of campuses (including UCLA as ‘mikemac’ stated) but that there are only 2 desks. What do they expect the 3rd person to do? While students can do HW on their bed and elsewhere on campus they should have a desk all their own. For a triple one of the beds is often lofted with a desk and closet put underneath it while the other two beds are bunked with the desks/closets in the usual spaces.</p>
<p>It’s surprising but although a tripled double and 3 people/room sounds bad up front the students usually end up doing fine. If nothing else it doubles the chances of getting a roomie they’ll click with. And depending on the configuration, it’s not quite as crowded as it seems it would be. My D was in one at UCLA for her first year and it wasn’t all that bad according to her.</p>
<p>I agree with another poster who stated that the college likely already has dealt with any potential code issues regarding this and I expect that dorms are fairly regularly inspected by the fire marshall.</p>
<p>Good heavens, I cannot imagine a room for three kids not having three desks! How awful.</p>
<p>A lot of kids find other places to study besides their dorm rooms such as empty classrooms and the library.</p>
<p>BC - True, but I know the “desk” is sacred. It’s the place kids put their things so they aren’t out in the open and generally something that the other roommates stay “out of” as well as a dumping spot for room keys, laptops, books, notebooks…there really isn’t anything else in the room that belongs to the individual. My kids have desks now in their rooms although they are more apt to do their homework elsewhere and I know that extends right into college. When my oldest moved out of the dorm into an apartment last year he slept on an air mattress for weeks, but went to the thrift shop right away to buy a “desk.” It’s more than symbolic I think.</p>
<p>UCLA puts nearly all Frosh into forced triples (room built for two), while they rebuild a dorm. But seniors get first dibs on the really good, uncrowded spaces.</p>
<p>I’m always shocked that this happens, not necessarily because of the fire code (fire codes are incredibly lax in many areas, and large housing is often able to “get away” with a lot of code violations) but because people are willing to put up with the risk… just because it is allowed by the fire code does not automatically mean it is safe.</p>
<p>And not just fire risk… colds, flu, norovirus, meningitis, etc spread exponentially more as the density of people go up…</p>
<p>Even more ridiculous are requirements that students live on campus, then requiring students to triple in doubles. If it ever came down to me choosing between a mandatory tripling or going to a different school, I’d go to a different school.</p>
<p>The problem is, jbusc, is that one commits to a school and then only after the fact does one find out one has been tripled – when the deposit has been paid and it is difficult to go to a different school.</p>
<p>
They do study and do HW in other locations including sitting on their beds but they shouldn’t forced to and need a place to ‘park’ their books, computer, printer, etc. In addition, some students need to do HW into the wee hours of the morning or even do all-nighters (ex: CS majors) and some of the other locations would be either closed or not that safe to be walking back from at 4 in the morning.</p>
<p>But if the room when configured as a double had 2 non-bunked beds plus two desks I don’t see why when converted to a triple they couldn’t offer a 3rd desk by bunking 2 beds and lofting the 3rd with the 3rd desk located under the lofted bed. That’s what UCLA does.</p>
<p>
I think you remember writing this. And it’s what came to mind when the OP posted, since there are 3 beds but not three of everything else in that scenario.</p>
<p>
I so agree! I know that some folks say to let the kids handle it on their own, but if it’s the parent’s money the parent can have some say! Sometimes I think that colleges get away with whatever they can. A 17-18 or 19 y/o is no match for the experienced school administrators. (I read this years ago on CC and it always made perfect sense to me!)</p>
<p>My tripled room only had two desks. They were attached to the wall. The two beds were attached to the floor so no bunking/lofting. The third girl’s bed was plopped right in the middle of the room between the other two beds. We literally had to climb across it to get fr. one side of the room to the other. </p>
<p>Here’s the best part…our sch. was/is in a hot coastal region of a southern state.
The dorm was a 10 floor high rise. We lived on the sixth floor with one window and NO air conditioning. It’s amazing that I lived to tell the tale:)</p>
<p>“MommaJ, blaming the person being bullied is wrong.”</p>
<p>Whoa. That’s pretty knee-jerk. I said that if she couldn’t/wouldn’t take action to fight back and extricate herself from that ridiculous situation, she was probably not mature enough for college. That’s not blaming. (And if I were the parent paying for that room, I wouldn’t have let that bullying behavior go on for 5 minutes.) I’m glad the girl was able to find happiness elsewhere, but what a shame that the two queen bees were never called to account for their behavior.</p>