Upperclassmen receive limited help during move-in
Kristen Harris
Opinions Editor
College move-in is a different, albeit difficult, experience for everyone. However, as an upperclassman, move-in presented challenges that I simply did not have to face freshman year.
As a freshmen, you have a whole team of RAs and orientation leaders ready to help you haul all of your junk from the car to your dorm. Moving into my freshman dorm last August only took a few minutes. However, as an upperclassman, you are on your own. My small, three-person team went up and down the stairs of Dell at least five times each. It is not that I have too much stuff (although maybe I did bring a few too many books from my ever-growing “To Be Read” pile). However, it is generally easier to carry all of the living essentials when there are more hands to help out.
Then there was my roommate’s stuff. As a freshman, you do not think about where you’re going to store your stuff when May rolls around. So when freshman year finally ended, my roommate, who lives out of state, and I simply took our things to my parents’ house. We didn’t think that every corner of the house would be filled, but it was. Including my sister’s stuff, we had enough plastic tubs and rolling carts for three college students in our relatively small house. I could not close my closet all summer long.
Finally, going from Nicholas to Dell, my dorm space is reduced significantly. You do not realize just how much garbage you have until your storage space is cut in half. My roommate and I were spoiled with a corner room in Nicholas last year, and now we live in a shoebox. We learn where the dumpster was and familiarized ourselves with the stairwell pretty quickly.
However, upperclassmen move-in does have its perks. For starters, your roommate is your best friend rather than some stranger you only know from the Internet. You don’t have to go to Orientation, thank goodness. You actually know a few of the other people who are living next to you. There’s no assigned check-in time, so you can get to campus as late or as early as you please. You know what you need in your dorm and what you can leave behind. Best of all, you are already planning for the apartment that you’ll soon be eligible for.
My point is that both freshman and upperclassmen move-ins have their pros and cons. I think we could improve both by hiring students to form a move-in team that is available to everyone throughout the move-in process. The team members could help each other move in early and then be paid to help everyone else on the official move-in days.
It would also be nice if there was a way for students who aren’t eligible for Homesteading to store at least some of their things on campus, such as crates and fridges. The campus could lease a few storage units for the summer, which could then be rented to groups of students in need of a storage space.
Finally, if a dorm room measurements were listed next to your room assignment on the portal, then you could have a better idea of how much will actually fit in your new dorm. I’m the kind of person who likes to visualize things, so I think that being able to create a“model” of your new dorm would be extremely beneficial when it comes to planning out your space. With just a few minor changes, move-in would be a lot less difficult for everyone. I, for one, would be willing to pay for reasonably priced moving service or campus-owned storage space. Maybe I should just embrace minimalism instead, or at least put a portion of my personal library onto my Kindle
