Freshman public relations major Mayte Espinal roomed with one of her friends from high school last semester in White Hall. This semester, not only has she been assigned a new roommate, but a new suitemate as well. Both of Espinal’s roommates transferred to new schools.
“A new person, and half way through the year – it took so long to get to know my suitemates and we got real close,” she said. “I’m not excited to go through that again.”
Although Espinal admitted that knowing her former roommate may have spoiled her, she still credits learning how to interact with her new roommate from her previous roommate experience. Espinal said her old roommate taught her how to be considerate of others.
Senior criminal justice major Keisha Adams used to be a resident assistant in Hardwick Hall for two years. She said that although her residents tended to get along even when a new roommate was added to the floor, the room change process is not easy.
“You couldn’t just get a new room,” she said. “You had to apply for a room change and prove why the room change was needed.”
Tommy Floyd, a freshman political science major, has already switched rooms once since the beginning of the fall semester in 1940 residence hall. However, his room switch wasn’t what he imagined it would be, and he is not looking forward to returning to his living situation this semester.
“I was trying to switch into a new room for this semester, but my RA said to try to work it out this time,” Floyd said.
Even though some students were not anticipating a new living situation and are not looking forward to what lies ahead, others view having a new roommate with a more positive outlook.
“I’m kind of looking forward to seeing who I will be sharing my room with next, but at the same time, I kind of lucked out the first time and I wonder if I will be so lucky this time,” said freshman anthropology major Corinne Durrette, whose roommate moved out after the fall semester.
Freshman international business major Marissa Reynolds recently transferred to Temple and decided to live on campus to get the full freshman experience, and views the room change process from a different angle.
“I’m staying in 1300 [residence hall]. My roommate sent me a message on Facebook, and she seems pretty nice,” she said. “I was surprised, my roommate in my old school and I didn’t really talk much. I didn’t know what to expect coming here, but I know that my roommate is going to be a big part of my life, so at least I feel lucky so far.”
Keisha Frazier can be reached at keisha.frazier@temple.edu.
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