[nabs-l] Campus Housing and social concerns.

Kaiti Shelton crazy4clarinet104 at gmail.com
Thu Jan 9 18:59:59 UTC 2014


Hi Justin,

The bulletin board thing may work.  I have put several posts out on
Facebook, including on in my class group.  I have also messaged
another girl who said she was looking for potential roommates for next
year, but she has not responded in the few days since I got back to
her.

On 1/9/14, justin williams <justin.williams2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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-- 
Kaiti




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