This is my last real night of freedom.

Wednesday, what should be the last fall semester of my college career begins... But tomorrow, it will be time to move back into the dorms. Of course, living in the dorms isn't really squelching my freedom. It's the fact that for the first time since December 1999, it looks like I'll be stuck with a roommate.

I've lived in one dorm room or another during seven semesters of my college career and had roommates for the first four. But after dealing with conflicting schedules, conflicting social calendars, lack of alone time, being subjected to weird roommate sex, strange tastes in incense and language barriers, I decided that having a dorm room to myself had crossed the line from luxury to necessity.

I've spent Spring 2000, Fall 2000 and Spring 2001 with a pad all to myself. This was a wonderful experience. Perhaps its the wrong attitude, but I thoroughly enjoyed not having to worry about someone else. I was free to invite anyone over to my room at any time of the day or night without having to ask permission. No longer did I have to slip into the room when returning late at night nor did I have to get undressed and slip quietly into bed in the dark. If the inspiration to write hit me at four in the morning... I was free to turn on the lights and write. If the need to take a nap at three in the afternoon hit me... I was free to black out the place and snooze. Tomorrow, all of those freedoms will probably come to an end.

You see, my university is imploding. About six years ago, our student population approached 12,000. With the help of terrible management, student apathy and better universities nearby, our enrollment has slipped to below 9,000. My university is also becoming more and more of a commuter school... and the lack of warm bodies on campus is only making the overall enrollment problem worse. This spring, the school announced that they couldn't afford to keep all of our dorms open and decided to close our large, high-rise male dorm.

When I first arrived at State University at Oakdale, the high-rise dorm in question was the slum of the campus. The rooms were very small. The elevators were problematic. The residents enjoyed making lots and lots of noise. And folks residing on the upper floors often made a hobby out of hurling objects down to the parking lot or even urinating onto unwary pedestrians below. Of course, every freshman was required to live there (including me).

As soon as the semi-decent students (including me) had 30 hours under their belt, they hauled ass to other dorms leaving nothing but the thugs, hoodlums and really brave souls in the high-rise. (My university had open admissions which meant we let everyone in -- even thugs and hoodlums.) While moving into these other dorms, many people took the opportunity to get a private room, too. Afterall, the declining enrollment left plenty of rooms to fill.

The problem now is that with our ghetto high-rise closed... the males are being forced into the remaining three dorms on campus. My contacts in the residential life department tell me that the new freshman dorm has a waiting list of folks trying to get it (it's the best of the three choices on campus and is where I had been living). The other two are at capacity with no private rooms available. When I heard this news, I said aloud that not going back to school would be better than living with a roommate. I was joking... sort of.

I want to go back. I want to be with my friends. I want to get my degree. I want to move on from the hell hole that my university has become. But I really wish I could do it without a roommate.

copyright © 2001-02, Thomas Fletcher. all rights reserved.