ESCAPE FROM HELL: The rush to get a room in Shaw Hall

by Andrew Struska

Akers resident Jake Barnett along with Emmons residents Matt Morris and Mike Goodwin wait in line at 6:00, hoping to secure a room. xxxxx

Defiant against bad fortune and an administration that saw fit to cast them into some of the worst dorms available on campus, a crowd approaching 200 people gathered Shaw Hall last Thursday morning. All were waiting forthe doors toopen in the hope of changing their luck in campus dorm housing for next year. 

The people at the front of the line had been waiting outside since four in the morning. Those who arrived later hoped their friends had better spots in line. But all were willing to brave the single-digit temperature and biting wind in order to secure some sort of better standard of living than what they’d had forced upon them this year.

With its central location and its well-maintained bathrooms and spacious living quarters, Shaw Hall is in high demand, with few rooms available to freshmen.  

Hoping to secure a slot in this coveted dorm. science majors and Bryan residents Lauren White and Jackie Lapp both turned out at 5:30 in the morning equipped with a sizable chair that would accommodate both of them as they waited.  “We had to take the Night Owl here,” they said. “It’s just too hard to get from the Brody complex to anywhere.  Plus, it’ll be convenient to get to classes since we’re both Science majors and nearly all our classes are in the Bio-Med building.”

The vast majority of the people appearned to come fom dorms in the Akers-Hubbard complex or Brody and most said they were fed up with the long hikes to class and to socialize.  Others just seemed to be disgusted with quality of the dorms themselves.

“The difference between Holmes and Akers is pretty much the difference between a mental hospital and a prison -- only difference is that a mental hospital is at least a little nicer,” said Brandon Boozer, a freshman who lived Holmes hall this year. He was up bright and early to secure a spot towards the front of the line.

After waiting nearly an hour in line, the doors finally opened at around 6:45. Separate lines divided by gender weaved their way down to a waiting room on Shaw’s terrace level.  Once in the building’s lower levels, everyone in line was given a color-coded number between one and 60 that specified your rank in getting a chance to pick your room.  

Everyone was eventually situated into the rows of chairs set up specifically for the hopeful, future Shaw residents. An event coordinator then told the waiting crowd the bad news (no one could register for a slot until 9 a.m.) and the good news (refreshments would be served in the meantime).

Before the coordinator left the stage, someone raised the question of whether or not it was necessary to have a room transfer card.  When told yes, several people, including myself, had to scurry to our current dorm rooms to retrieve our cards.  

Returning to Shaw approximately an hour later to find that few if any people had advanced to pick their rooms, we joined in watching the latest music videos on the big screen brought in for our enjoyment.  

Somewhere near 10 or 10:30, my friends and I were finally called in to pick our rooms, a process that was surprisingly quick once the housing contracts were filled out (and provided the individual wasn’t too particular on their rooming choices).   

The whole ordeal wrapped up somewhere between 11 and 1130, which meant the process took almost five hours for some of us.  But, as most people who live in Akers or Brody will attest, enduring the elements and the long.cold lines is well worth it to escape the ends of the Earth.