[nabs-l] Campus Housing and social concerns.

[justin williams]

Maybe try a bulletin board or facebook announcement.  Something that will
reach a lot of people.

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kaiti Shelton
Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2014 12:14 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: [nabs-l] Campus Housing and social concerns.

Hi all,

Please let me know if you have any suggestions on this.

I go to a fairly small university, where 90% of the students live on campus.
Figuring out housing for the next year can be very complex, as the
university pushes students to have groups put together.  The groups are
especially important for upperclassmen to have, since a lot of their housing
is apartments and houses around campus.

Two friends and I formed a group of 3 in freshman year, and at the time we
thought we would stay together.  We got an apartment this year and things
were going really well.  Just over break one of the girls decided that she
was going to transfer to a school closer to home for personal reasons, and
the other has said for a while that since she lives fairly close she is
planning on commuting for junior year.
Therefore, the plan of my friend who transfered and I getting an apartment
together has fallen through.  I have also applied to live in my fraternity
house, but unfortunately I was not accepted.

One of the things I've noticed about my school is that the students can be
pretty cliquey.  My two friends and I sort of had our own little group
because we didn't fall in to any of the larger ones early on in freshman
year.  I now see two problems forming for junior year; I am friendly with a
lot of people, but wasn't particularly close to anyone other than my two
friends on campus.  I'm pretty extroverted though, and love being around
other people.  It was so easy to socialize as a freshman because even though
I was a little shy in the beginning other people would go out of their way
to be friendly and welcoming.  It seems kind of awkward now that I'm halfway
through sophomore year.  A lot of those I am not close to do not really know
me that well, but I'm worried that since a year and a half has gone by with
us just being acquaintances that it might be difficult for them to really
get to know me.  The second issue is of course that I will not have someone
to be in a group with me for housing.

I have looked at the housing web site.  Juniors and seniors cannot live in
the dorms because they're reserved for freshman and sophomore students.  I
would use a dorm as a fall back plan, but that isn't going to work.  A lot
of the apartment suites are either quads or tripples, so I would need at
least 2 more people to get into one of those.  There is almost nothing
available for two people, and there appear to be no options available for
just one in case I would need to just look for myself.

I've come up with a few obvious ways to try to fix this; A lot of the
problem that I'm sure other music majors can attest to is that I spend a lot
of time around the same very small group of people.  There are about 100
students in the department, and these are the people I am always around.
They have already grouped up, and that was also how I met my two friends
that I lived with last semester.  I will be taking some more gen ed courses
this semester which could help with getting out of the familiar social
circles, but since I'm going to be going to class I'm not sure how much time
there will really be for socializing.
 I have looked up some clubs which might be good to join, and a lot of them
sound like things I will really enjoy.  However, I usually take a large
number of credits, and have a lot on my plate for next semester again.  I
really do feel like joining a new club would be a good way for me to branch
out and meet new people, but I am not sure if I will have the extra time to
devote to it.  The added component is that a lot of the clubs that caught my
interest were social justice groups like Best Buddies and Big Brothers Big
Sisters, so if I joined one of these groups and had to back out I would also
be letting down someone else.

I know that if all else fails the disability office can help secure housing,
but I'm hoping to get a group together and not have to go through them.  Of
course, if it comes down to just needing a place to sleep, I will do it.

Has anyone ever been in a similar situation where either you had housing
concerns or felt like you really needed to branch out?  What were some
things which worked for you?

--
Kaiti

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