Roomless Dal students live in lounges

Dalhousie housing policy overbooks residence, extra students pushed into common areas

Michael Pollock (left) and Nathaniel Ng-Cornish share a common lounge in North Pole Bay at the University of King’s College. (Adam Burns photo)

Dalhousie University student James Ross has his own room but, for the first three weeks of the fall semester, he shared a common lounge in the school's Fountain House residence with three other students.

"With all the constant partying and not being able to get to sleep ... it did get a bit annoying," says Ross, a first-year bachelor of arts student.

The Dalhousie Gazette reported that 67 students spent part of September in "temporary space," Dalhousie's term for common areas acting as makeshift dorm rooms.

The "temporary spaces" that Ross and others like him occupied normally function as common areas, study lounges and TV rooms. When students bunk there, though, those common spaces are taken away.

Alex Wolf, a residence assistant in Fountain House, says that without access to the gathering space, students found alternatives that gave residence staff headaches.

"People really started crowding in rooms, crowding in the hallways," says Wolf. "It's a lot easier when there is a lounge, because that's a place where they can all go... people can have fun there."

Nguyen Cuong, one of Ross's roommates in Fountain House, said he was "very confused" upon his arrival early one morning in September, surrounded as he was by empty beer bottles and sleeping strangers.

Cuong, an exchange student from Vietnam away from home for the first time, spent a week in residence before moving off campus. Dalhousie charged him $1,000 for his withdrawal.

Temporary housing may seem like an accident, but Dalhousie's student housing policy actually allows for it. Heather Sutherland, Dalhousie's executive director of student community services, says as residence staff books rooms each year, they anticipate a certain number of drop-outs.

"We always know it's gonna happen," Sutherland says.

Matt Robinson, residence life manager for Howe Hall, agrees. He says that "certain percentages" of students who arrive in September will not finish the year, and that "regular attrition rates"-caused by drop-outs, "no-shows" and students like Cuong who move into off-campus housing-allow Dalhousie to overbook residences and eventually find a bed for every student.

Dalhousie is not the only school that places students in lounges to supplement its regular dorm space.

St. Francis Xavier's system is similar to Dalhousie's. According to Victoria Johnson, St. F.X.'s technical coordinator of residence services, the school places up to four students in the common areas of its residences and provides them with desks, beds and other necessities. Unlike Dalhousie, St. F.X. charges residence fees to misplaced students during their time in temporary space.

The two students who live in temporary space at the University of King's College also pay residence fees. However, unlike Dalhousie and St. F.X. - which guarantee a room to any student who applies for residence before a certain date - King's maintains a waiting list for space in residence.

Michael Pollock and Nathaniel Ng-Cornish were both on that list when the school contacted them with the idea of sharing a lounge. Pollock says he's happy with his decision.

"If I didn't get into residence, I wasn't going to go (to King's)," says Pollock. "It was a deal breaker for my parents."

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