In last week’s issue, The Minaret published an article titled,
“Student Finds Himself Without A Home.”
An anonymous tip was sent to The Minaret regarding a student who was left without housing and living in various places on campus without anywhere else to go.
We published a follow-up this week on the student’s current housing condition and a statement from the Office of Residence Life.
Our intention of writing the piece and others similarly dealing with sensitive topics was not for publicity, but to make our readers aware of issues at the University.
Due to the timeliness of the issue, we ran the story in our paper last week.
Thankfully, the student was provided housing, even before the article was published.
Our encounters when visiting the ResLife office last week, however, proved that incidents like this are not isolated.
Another student approached ResLife last week during our visit. He was asking about his housing status and whether he had been placed in a room yet.
He was told no more rooms would be opened at the Howard Johnson and that he would be alerted about room vacancies via e-mail.
His reaction to the response he was given was that he would look into withdrawal from the University.
The Minaret does not support any particular party in this situation.
But from what was seen during this incident, it’s apparent that officials at ResLife do not make exceptions when housing deposits are submitted late.
E-mails are sent before the beginning of each semester for student housing placement.
This year, there were over 6,000 students attending UT, 300 of which were placed at the Howard Johnson.
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