By Jessica Harden

Students took to Yik Yak and Reddit with Department of Resident Life complaints following the 2022-2023 academic year room selection process that began on March 8. 

During the “shop and select” process, during which students can choose their housing location for the upcoming year, a technical error occurred, and available rooms in the Pyon-Chen and Johnson-Whittle halls were not displayed. 

“In fairness to all students who were shopping for these spaces, we decided to offer them as part of the Room Reassignment process in June instead of opening them in the afternoon after many students participated and selected an alternative space,” Tracy Kiras, Associate Director of Communication and Marketing for the Department of Resident Life, said in an email. 

There were also numerous complaints about students not being able to get an air-conditioned unit for next semester. Freshman computer science major Elijah Doyle said that he was able to secure an air-conditioned unit in Denton Hall, but his friend who had a selection time 45 minutes after his was stuck in an un-air-conditioned unit in Ellicott Hall.

“I think it’s a little ridiculous, just the number of non-ac units,” Doyle said. “During the summer it gets pretty hot, or at least last semester [in] the beginning it was [hot].” 

While students struggled to find available rooms that fit their preferences, sophomore English major Emma Friedman was not able to participate in the room selection process at all. 

“I had a roommate conflict so severe, I was driven out of housing,” Friedman said. 

She lived in a suite in Washington Hall last semester and moved to Terrapin Row because of the conflict. When she got out of her housing contract, she was told by a Resident Life representative that she would maintain her priority for room selection.

A few weeks before room selection, Friedman received an email saying she was ineligible for housing. 

“I felt confused [and] I felt angry because that’s so unjust,” Friedman said. “The reason they cited was because I didn’t live on campus this semester. So I was thrown out of my housing and that’s what caused me to lose my priority.”

Friedman said she fought to get in contact with the manager of assignments and public inquiry, Glenn Smith. When she was finally able to reach him, Friedman said Smith agreed to consider making her eligible for housing and would get back to her on March 14, but he would not reinstate her priority. 

“I was so anxious all the time,” Friedman said. “My mental health began to sort of suffer because I [was] just so stressed about it.”

On March 14, Smith told Friedman that they do not have availability for her. 

Later that day, South Campus Commons sent out an email about a limited number of vacancies. Friedman called and was able to secure an apartment at Commons 5. 

While Friedman was able to find housing last minute, she said her mother also made numerous attempts to get in contact with Smith, but they were both told that he was out of the office or that he would call them back at the end of the day. Because of the miscommunication, she was forced to scramble for housing and said she could not find a reasonably priced off-campus apartment.

“Reslife is incompetent and poorly structured,” Friedman said. “They [weren’t] taking my very personal and unique situations into consideration, and it’s ridiculous.”

Featured image: The Department of Resident Life oversees the on-campus housing selection process for University of Maryland students. Photo by Jessica Harden.