“Ithaca College is a residential institution and guarantees each of its students on-campus housing for the entirety of their undergraduate career. Additionally, students are required to live on-campus for their freshmen, sophomore, and junior years.” Yes, you read that correctly. Ithaca College not only promises every single student a place to live on campus throughout their college experience, but requires freshman, sophomores and juniors to live on-campus (unless they are granted off-campus housing upon request and approval), so why is it that so many incoming sophomores are left dorm-less?

On July 6, 2016, housing selection for the incoming sophomores at Ithaca college began, and the Facebook group for the Class of 2019 immediatly became flooded with posts about problems securing housing. Many who were assigned selection times on the first day wished luck to those who had to anxiously await until the second day in order to attempt to secure a dorm of their own. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to do so. Many students were left dorm-less after the sophomore housing selection concluded.

Among the dorm-less students is Rhianna Ortenberg. Despite her multiple attempts to contact ResLife about securing housing for the upcoming semester, she has not heard back from them. With just over a month until move-in day, her and multiple other students still do not know where they will be living this fall.

Those who were lucky enough to secure housing after the allotted time are not living in their preferred conditions. Some students are being forced to live with strangers. Others, including Josh Briggs, had to split up with their roommates in order to secure a single because there were no other options. Josh says that, “[his] roommate was definitely a part of [his] college experience,” and feels that the loss of said roommate will weaken the experience he has this coming year. Single rooms also come with additional costs, as do rooms in on-campus apartment complexes designed for upperclassmen.

Diamond DeFairia is an incoming sophomore who will be living in a Circle Apartment this coming year due to lack of available sophomore housing. Not only is she paying $6,000 more for housing than she would be if given a sophomore dorm room, but ResLife and Ithaca College are doing nothing to subsidize the cost even though it is their mistake that caused her to have to choose an apartment rather than a dorm room. Their only suggestion for DeFairia was to get rid of her meal plan to reduce costs, which would leave DeFairia with food shopping to do off campus. The cost of living in the apartment isn't even the most of her worries. She will also have about a half hour walk to each of her classes unless she wants to pay for a bus to take her to and from her studies. Defairia says, “living in a circle is just not realistic for me when it comes to school. I can already see myself living in the library.”

This isn't the first year that housing the sophomores at Ithaca College was an issue. Multiple students in the class of 2018 have shared similar horror stories of their housing selection. Many members of their class were also forced to live in the apartment style housing, but no one was left without a room selection until this year.

I guess now the only question is, what, if anything, is Ithaca going to do about this ongoing dorm shortage? Hopefully the issues get resolved quickly, and I wish the dorm-less members of the class of 2019 the best of luck.