With less than two weeks before students are evicted from the residence halls, Brian Brown doesn’t know where he’s going to live next semester.
A freshman studying biology, Brown signed a contract before the semester began which ensured him a room through fall.
However, the contract ends Dec. 15, when residents and their belongings will be moved out, and Brown might be without a place to stay.
According to Curtis Grow, assistant director for the Office of Residential Living, every day, students are applying for space in the old dorms during Spring Semester.
“The numbers are changing every day,” he said.
While there are still some rooms left?available on a first-come-first-serve basis?they might not be around for long, Grow said.
There were 15 to 20 spots left in the old dorms when Grow spoke to The Daily Utah Chronicle last week, however, residential living has a backup plan.
“We do have some options,” Grow said. Those options include opening some “large rooms and a few lounges.”
Generally speaking, residential living is optimistic that everyone who needs accommodations will have them. Nonetheless, Grow said there is always the potential that alternatives will run out.
“We’re really hoping that’s not the case,” he said.
According to Grow, the only reason that will happen is if there is a “huge onslaught” of students needing spaces to live between now and an unspecified time in the future.
There is no deadline for applications. “Once we’re full, we’re full,” Grow said. As an additional alternative, putting three people in a room may be an option, he said.
Because of the Olympics, residential living needs to move residents out over winter break. To make the transition a little easier, they will provide boxes for each person on Dec. 7 to help pack up items.
However, some students are not wiling to go through the stress of having to move down to the old dorms, and then potentially move back up to the Heritage Center in March. Residential living has left the option open to students.
“I’m just going home,” said sophomore Avais Ahmed, whose family lives in the Salt Lake area.
Some students, who had initially decided to not to stay in the old dorms during Spring Semester ended up changing their minds. In order to make sure everyone was given an equal chance at room preference, “We made [them] wait a while,” Grow said.
Brown, a Sage Point resident, has received at least two contracts which are for sale. By buying a contract out, he would be entitled to the room which was reserved for the previous person under contract.
More options have begun to pop up for him as well.
“I was invited to go down to Southern Utah University,” Brown said.
For the next few days, Brown will decide on whether to buy out a contract or to leave the U. However, it didn’t have to come to this, he said.
According to Brown, he was not well-informed about what exactly would happen during Spring Semester, and what options were available. Other students have had similar sentiments.
“Out of all the places I could go, I came [to the U]. Housing and parking should not be the most challenging part of my college education,” said graduate student Charlie Brown, no relation to Brian Brown, in a previous interview. Next semester, he’ll be living off campus.
If he had been told of his options clearly, Brian Brown is certain he wouldn’t be in his current situation today.
“If I was ensured a spot, I wouldn’t even consider leaving,” he said.