University of Virginia Library

Housing Hassle

Traditionally, the Housing Office has been
a source of irritation and frustration in
student relations with the administration, and
it is usually the new student's first insight into
the mass of red tape, trivia, and paternalism
that constitute a university bureaucracy. But
this year the offensiveness of the Housing
Office has been particularly noticeable, and
student discontent is growing.

The Housing Office this year, in the
absence of Chester Titus, has been directed by
Ralph Main, and a search for the cause of the
problem could end right here. Perhaps it is
mere coincidence that the flames of protest
have built up and now threaten to explode in
Mr. Main's first year as Director. But in
looking at some of the Director of Housing's
actions during the last six months, it seems
apparent that Mr. Main has not only fanned
whatever flames may have already been
present, but has added fuel to the fire.

The Director of Housing has many
responsibilities, but the one that brings him in
contact most directly with the students of the
University is his responsibility for the welfare
of the residents of the various dormitories. As
such he is the overseer of room assignments,
the counseling program, maintenance of the
dormitories, and student affairs in the
dormitories. It is his mismanagement of the
room assignments and his disregard for the
Alderman Road Legislative and Judicial
Council constitution that has particularly
aroused the anger of dormitory residents.

The situation on McCormick Road, with
scores of upperclassmen housed in the
basements of various first-year dorms, is
admittedly bad. These students were forced to
sign a contract stating that they would move
to Alderman Road as space became available;
and it is only fair that those students who do
wish to transfer should be moved into double
rooms occupied by one person. But this is, for
the most part, not the case. The students
housed in the McCormick Road basements are
being split from their roommates as single
slots on Alderman Road become available.
They have repeatedly asked Mr. Main to take
their names off the waiting lists for transfer,
but it is useless. Instead they are moved to
Alderman Road, where they don't want to
live, and their new roommates don't want
them. The most deplorable thing about this is
the Housing Office's lack of communication
and outright disregard for student needs.

And while we're speaking of disregard: Mr.
Main's denial of the constitutional government
on Alderman Road is a throwback to an
earlier University. The experiment with
dormitory self-regulation on Alderman Road
had the promising beginnings of a pattern that
could have set the standard for the entire
dormitory system. Instead, Mr. Main has
rendered it meaningless under his authoritarian
hands.

The Legislative Council has three times
voted to allow refrigerators in dorms. This is
not the result of hasty or irresponsible student
action, but the product of a detailed study
and long debate. There are hazards involved in
allowing numerous refrigerators, but there are
hazards involved in allowing students to
smoke. After Mr. Main vetoed the proposal
and the Council's overriding of the veto, the
Constitution asked for a committee to be
called by Mr. Main to work out a solution.
Yet Mr. Main has steadfastly refused to call
the committee.

By his inflexible policies Mr. Main has
made the dormitories an unpleasant place to
live at a time when more and more students,
men and women, will be living in dormitories.
Housing Office tractability seems to fluctuate
with the demand for space in dorms. With the
dorms filled this year, that tractability has
seemingly turned into intransigency. Only a
less rigid and more yielding attitude from the
Housing Director will prevent dormitory living
from becoming more distasteful than it
already is.