Residence Halls Association passes bill allowing students who lose roommates to keep room

At a meeting on Wednesday, MSU’s Residence Halls Association decided to help students who lose roommates during the academic year.

A bill, introduced Wednesday by Kara Charbarneau, states that University Housing should extend the response deadline to the housing options letter and allow the student to stay in his or her room at a prorated price. The bill passed by a 22-0-0 vote.

“We introduced the bill because one of the community members (told us) a story from a friend who got stuck in this position and had to move down from his floor,” Charbarneau said. “There’s how many students here on campus? For kids to get stuck in those position, it sucks.”

The current policy states that a student who loses a roommate has three business days after notification to determine if he or she will pay for a single room. If they want a double, they will either be assigned a roommate or be moved into another room, depending on whose housing application was received first.

RHA President Mark Dobson wants to see more stability from University Housing since most college students live unstable lives.

“We have enough stressors in our lives (and are) being put in a spot where maybe the one stable thing we have going is a warm room and a bed to come to at the end of the day, (and it) is really in jeopardy,” he said. “Hopefully tweaking this policy will make it even more accommodating for students.”

The next step for this bill is its presentation to University Housing.

“Hopefully between RHA and housing, we can work something out and if not … at least get a halfway point of sorts,” Charbarneau said.

This was the first meeting of the semester for RHA.

Dobson was pleased a bill was passed but has not set a timetable for a meeting with University Housing.

“It’s great that we got something out there,” he said. “With a system this large … it takes time to enact something like this.”

It also was announced at the meeting that the renovated Brody Complex and Mayo Hall dorm rooms will not have landline telephones. The removal of landlines in these dorms is the beginning of phasing out landlines.

“I think most of the students don’t use them, so it’s a good thing,” RHA Vice President Kevin Fleury said. “Anyplace you can cut corners to make living on campus cheaper.”

The removal of landlines is expected to save money for students and the university.

“If ultimately this is going to be cost-saving down the road, then maybe it’s a better alternative for students,” Dobson said. “If (usage) is not anywhere near where it needs to be, then I guess business decisions get made.”

The increased use of cell phones is the biggest reason that landlines aren’t used, but some students still use them to make local calls.

“I know if I’m going to make a local phone call, I’ll often use my landline over my cell phone because I’ve already effectively paid for my landline,” Dobson said. “It’s really a double-edged sword in my opinion because you’d hate to see a service come away from students.”