For a few “lucky” first-years students set to arrive this fall, their first taste of Carolina living will certainly be unique.
That’s because in addition to living out practically in the boonies in Cliff Apartments, first-year students will have to share their apartment-style rooms with a roommate who could potentially end up being their RM.
It’s troubling to think what this sort of arrangement could do for the morale of RMs and for the students they’re supposed to serve. While we understand that beds are short across campus, we can only hope that University Housing moves to correct situations like this and relocates students as swiftly as possible.
In addition, with its relatively isolated location, we wonder why University Housing would even bother to place newcomers to the Gamecock family in Cliff Apartments, especially in a building that houses families and graduate students. Living that far from campus in an apartment-style room isn’t going to help first-years connect with peers across the campus or even within their own building.
To USC Housing’s credit however, they at least furnished the residence hall with updated furniture and, despite the ongoing renovations taking place at Women’s Quad, we guess it’s a good thing that all incoming first-year students will actually have a place to live this fall — even if it does mean that a few of them might have to live with their RMs temporarily.
At the end of the day however, we hope that all affected first-year students won’t be too intimidated by their surroundings to branch out to connect with the rest of the USC community. This isn’t an ideal situation for anybody, but as Gamecocks, we’re sure that they will somehow make the best of an unfair and difficult situation.