[nabs-l] Campus Housing and social concerns.

Thu Jan 9 19:25:39 UTC 2014

Maybe other students with disabilities are in the same situation. Instead of
having the disability office force a dorm space, then try to find some other
students with disabilities to live with if your first efforts don't work.  

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kaiti Shelton
Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2014 2:00 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Campus Housing and social concerns.

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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